My One-Year Followup Appointment Today

[sc0ttt]

Went very well. Rode my bicycle to the doctor's office. He's a pulmonologist and there were some seriously unhealthy people in the waiting room... I was happy not to be one of them. I suspect he enjoyed seeing someone who was reasonably healthy too.

1. Doctor's happy, I'm happy with results and compliance.
2. We discussed some minor changes I made to pressure and humidity since my prescription - he's a proponent of self monitoring and is fine with access to clinician's menu.
3. I asked about monitoring oxygen and he said he can tell from my charts and from my in-office oxygen level that I don't need to. Told him my grandfather died of a stroke; doctor didn't think I was much of a risk and the CPAP therapy makes it even less.
4. I told him about the ENT who did my hearing test - the ENT thought I should be using him for apnea treatment as well. My apnea doctor said the ENT guys sometimes push surgery over CPAP. I thought of surgery initially because it seemed like a fix instead of a treatment... but now I've heard too many regretful stories, I'm glad my guy is more conservative and a CPAP proponent.
5. I told him I sleep better, don't wake up as often, and feel better in the morning. He said "Carry on and come back next year".

More unhealthy people in the waiting room as I left; wheelchairs, oxygen bottles, wheezing - apnea isn't so bad.

[Julie]

That note should be framed and put up on the wall of this place... if there were a wall , but at least should follow the one talking about success stories. Congrats, would be nice if everyone could write that!

[sc0ttt]

The first thing he asked me was "How's it going?" and I said I was sold - CPAP works great for me. Then he said "Good, because we're raising the price ten-fold."

He mentioned the jaw positioning thing - said it hardly ever works for anybody and it's really expensive.

And he also said he recently read a study that looked at a pool of stroke victims and the report said that 100% of them had apnea (as determined after the strokes). 100%... wow. So apnea can cause strokes, and strokes can cause apnea in people that didn't have it before.

[Julie]

Maybe it's more about all potential stroke pts having apnea prior to stroking, but only afterward getting the diagnosis... if everyone were tested early on and put onto Cpap, would strokes become a thing of the past? But that would mean humans can't survive without Cpap... and that sounds kind of crazy, no? Do we all have fatal flaws? I thought a useless appendix was bad enough

[robysue]

sc0ttt,

Congrats on your first anniversay and one-yar followup appointment!

[sc0ttt]

sc0ttt,

Congrats on your first anniversay and one-yar followup appointment!

Thanks - it's actually the one-year anniversary of my one-month followup, so 13 months of therapy. It's almost my one year anniversary hear on the forum and I went back and checked some of my early posts... relieved to find I didn't say anything too rude/stupid/wrong.

[sc0ttt]

He said "Carry on and come back next year".

And now that makes TWO years.

Same doctor, same kind of visit. He said his motto was "treat patients, not numbers". So even though my AHI is a little higher (average 5.1) than some folks here would be happy with, he said my compliance is so good and results so positive that he's reluctant to change anything. He said my leakage numbers were a little high, but if I changed from pillows to nasal I might not sleep as well, and if I raised my pressures in search of lower AHI, I might have more leakage.

Then I asked if these annual followups were forever and he said nope, not unless you need them for insurance. Since my copays went up I'm not getting such a good deal on the supplies anymore so I don't think it's necessary and he said to make an appointment if I want to discuss some sleep problems and otherwise no need to come back.

He did note that folks with automatic supply delivery tend to change their masks a little more frequently and that can help keep leakage down, and he suggested that I change on a regular schedule rather than on my perception of when to do it... that was a good point.

[mint0101]

Sc0ttt, like you--I just went to my 2nd annual sleep doctor's appointment last week--and received an "A+++" written on my compliance report I refuse to sleep without the CPAP and he says my results have been "incredible". (I have 0% leak rate even at 95% percentile of my highest pressure, which is 13.8cmH20)

I would tell you however, I went to see an ENT surgeon in the same sleep department as my sleep doctor-- because I have a blocked nose a lot(I have allergies) and thought I would see what options there may be to help me breathe better, during the day and night. A little over a month ago, I underwent a nasal turbinate reduction, which was a 10 min outpatient procedure--and now I breathe 1000% better through my nose. I was a little upset that my first sleep doctor never suggested it--I will get a lifetime of better daytime breathing, plus a chance I may be able to train myself not to breathe through my mouth due to clearer nasal passages, and hoping to switch over to nasal pillows soon (I'm nervous to change as I've been sleeping so well). While I would never do the invasive jaw surgery called MMA..I'm happy I did the turbinate reduction.

My sleep doc said if I did undergo MMA--I would not feel any better than I do with CPAP so I will stick with my current situation, thankyouverymuch.

ANyways--best of luck to you on your now third year of CPAP...!