Afib worsens as OSA continues

[Katota]

Hi. I was diagnosed with OSA @ 6 years ago. Assigned Phillips Auto- pap. Went through six different masks with continued issues waking up gasping for air. This is so scary. Tried many things. Lots of effort on nasal irrigation, mouth taping, nose strips, chin straps, humidification. Finally got approved for oral appliance. At first this seemed ok and I started to feel more restful than I was on CPAP. Then my afib and waking up increased dramatically. Sleep test was worse than the baseline before oral appliance started ( taken on no therapy). Sleep dentist suggested I use the dental appliance and the mask together. Two nights were great. Then not so, and last night woke up gasping for air felt horrible and right now have afib.
I have always felt that these sleep pulmonologists don’t know the machines. I have tried to learn them myself and paid my own money to stay on therapy during the Phillips fiasco and to try different masks. I see pulmonologist again on Wed. How do I explain why this can’t continue and what I need?
Dreamstation 2.

[vandownbytheriver]

How do I explain why this can’t continue and what I need?
Dreamstation 2.

Sorry to hear... low O2 is normally what caused this for me. I bought an O2Ring and this helped me learn more about sleep position and what I needed to do... it's not cheap, but you're already into this for money anyway. Perhaps your pulmonologist will send you home with a loaner recording pulse-ox, this will tell the tale I feel.

Most of us here use Oscar, SleepHQ, or both to monitor our condition and its treatment. Both are free, although SHQ requires payment to add the O2 to the graphs. I'll bet your gasping is correlated with an O2 desaturation, perhaps correlated with mask or mouth leaking? That's why you have to upload your SD card and read the graphs.

www.sleepfiles.com/oscar
www.sleephq.com

[ChicagoGranny]

I see pulmonologist again on Wed.

She's unlikely to be much help, but the members here can be a big help. Get a free account at http://www.sleephq.com/, and upload your SD card Then, post the link to the analysis in this thread.

[Katota]

Thank you both. It is a relief to find some help. I am going to look for the O2 ring and the programs you wrote about . I don’t even know if the DreamStaion II that Phillips sent as a replacement has an SD card. I have never looked for it

[ChicagoGranny]

I am going to look for the O2 ring

You might be wasting your money. First, your CPAP therapy needs to be optimized. That's the only priority at this time. Get the SleepHQ data posted in this thread.

(Unless you love tinkering around with software, I would avoid OSCAR for the time being. SleepHQ is quick and easy to use, and you don't have to load any software on your computer.)

[Miss Emerita]

It'd be good to see a Sleep HQ chart, as CG has said. Also, I strongly recommend looping your cardiologist into the discussion of apnea and afib.

[Katota]

Hi . I honestly think that one doesn’t know much about the other. The cardiologist says that the afib is worse because of untreated OSA, but that is the extent of her comment on it. She wants me to see an electrophysiologist next and I have appointment in August. I already take Betapace and Xarelto for the afib. But they don’t seem to link arms and work together to problem solve with the pulmonologist. And my first pulmonologist told me straight up that he did not know anything about the autopap machine.

[ozij]

Hi . I honestly think that one doesn’t know much about the other. The cardiologist says that the afib is worse because of untreated OSA, but that is the extent of her comment on it. She wants me to see an electrophysiologist next and I have appointment in August. I already take Betapace and Xarelto for the afib. But they don’t seem to link arms and work together to problem solve with the pulmonologist. And my first pulmonologist told me straight up that he did not know anything about the autopap machine.

That's OK.
We know a lot about the machines - how they work, how to set them up, how to learn to sleep with them.
Clearly, neither the pulmonolgist nor the cardiologist know much about either.

Get an SD card, upload your data, and many of us will be happy to share their experience and their knowledge.

Contrary to what we intuitively thing, physicians rarely know much about the living with the therapy they prescribe.
They diagnose, and have other professional do the therapy.
We're not OSA therapist, be we are people experienced to using PAP machines to treat our own OSA .