Pulse/Ox to the rescue.

[BasementDwellingGeek]

I have long suspected, "knew", that my mother and sister have SA. I do, and their snoring patterns are a "dead" give away. I was camped at the parental abode this past weekend due to a death in the family. I of course brought my CPAP machine and pulse/oximeter, the first time traveling with it. One night I loaned the pules/ox to my sister to convince her she should get her sleeping evaluated. The next morning, when analyzing her data, it was blatantly clear that her O2 levels were in the 60's for parts of the night. They resembled seismic shock wave.

She agreed to get it checked out but expressed concerns about needing to get up multiple times at night to whiz. I explained the stress hormones and the need to pee. She thought not getting up multiple times a night might be the justification for using the equipment. A comment made while viewing her data "maybe that is why I am tired all of time". DOH!

[MyIdaho]

You're an awesome brother! You may have given your sister several additional years of life, kudos to you!

[DoriC]

Give yourself a pat on the back! You done good!

[chunkyfrog]

You really deserve something as sweet as you are: Donuts!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbs64GvGgPU

[avi123]

Geek, I question the accuracy of your test which showed a 60% Oxygen desat. Besides the fact that such a low Oxygen saturation does not exist in a living normal human being, this whole business that you pretend to be a maven in this field causes me to question the reason for scaring your sister. If you believe that your measurement is correct then you could add it here:



http://www.medhelp.org/posts/Respirator ... how/626520

[DoriC]

Brief desats into the 60's is not good but those dips are not unheard of especially in untreated OSA. It certainly needs followup and you can take credit for getting the ball rolling!

[Kitatonic]

Avi, I'm a "living normal human being" and just by my husband's snoring complaint at his OSA doc, I had the study with desats into the 60s. Not so brief either. Started out desats in the 80s, then 70s, settling into the 60s, just kept dipping until the trembling tech woke me up after 2 hours to start CPAP. I picked up my machine the next day. Many of us have unsuspected severe OSA.

[Kitatonic]

Geek, your sister had courage to wear the oximeter and confront the likelihood of CPAP. I have two physician friends who won't check out an oximeter overnight, after seeing my CPAP set-up (which has Pad-a-Check little stars and matching covers!)

[WearyOne]

After years of trying to get my husband to get a sleep study (especially after I had mine and knew the ropes), he finally did about two years ago. He had one oxygen desat to 47% on his sleep study! Yep, he's on the machine.

[MaxDarkside]

Good job, BasementDwellingGeek !

Don't mind Avi. I went into the 70's in my sleep study with "moderate to severe" sleep apnea and I'm sure it's not particularly rare for techs to see some into the 60's from time to time. Our pulse ox's are for purposes of guidance, like "Get yer butt to the doc and get a sleep study!"

[BasementDwellingGeek]

Geek, I question the accuracy of your test which showed a 60% Oxygen desat. Besides the fact that such a low Oxygen saturation does not exist in a living normal human being, this whole business that you pretend to be a maven in this field causes me to question the reason for scaring your sister. If you believe that your measurement is correct then you could add it here:

Avi,
What happened to you to make you such a negative, crotchety old ______?

This is the big view. No scale showing. Sorry.


A closeup that does show a scale, which bottoms out at 70. Examining the csv file that is recorded shows many values as low as 64.

[BasementDwellingGeek]

I never professed maven status. I am a professed hack. Why does that bother you Avi?

Here is an excerpt from my own sleep study. Note the minimum O2 levels during hypopneas. 59.5 is lower than 60 unless the rules of math have changed and I wasn't informed. My study was done at Lahey Teaching Hospital, Burlington, MA.

[MaxDarkside]

Holy smokes, that's one nasty pulse-ox chart. OMG.

[Elle]

What a nice brother. I am sure she will be thanking you after a couple of good sleeps.

Sorry you were interrupted by Avi. Such an unhappy soul.

[jedimark]

I "walked" (was dragged) into the ER once with bout of AF, and had a Pulse Ox on my finger reading 60% for quite a while..

The nice friendly ER doctor pointed out to me if it really was that low, I'd pretty much be dead. Clammy skin and movement of the finger (sometimes when the finger is a little too far from the sensor) can interfere with them easily.

Whether or not optical oximeter accuracy is that great on the lower saturation scores, looking at that chart and the frequency of occurrences below the line there is no doubt in my mind something isn't right and it needs to be investigated thoroughly.

Sometimes all it takes is a scare like that to convince someone to go see a doctor and get a sleep study.

Worked with my Mum.. (she even brought the SleepyHead report hers was made with into her Doc.. made me lol) now she's an official hose head too..