Have I Been Properly Diagnosed?

[ronswan]

Hi all,

I had a home study done and the results were AHI of 36.7 and SAT of 76%. Pretty bad, and I was rightfully diagnosed with severe sleep apnea. I will say that the belt around my chest during the home study didn't move much, and I made a comment about that in the comments section of the results sheet.

The doctor prescribed me with an APAP setting of 6-16. I have a ResMed AirSense10 AutoSet with a Philips DreamWear 360.

So far, my results, according to myAir (ResMed website) and SleepyHead have been amazing! The lowest myAir score has been 76 (but that was an evening when I went out and got liquored up with the boys ), but most of them have been over 95.

My AHI's have been less than 2 on most nights.

Could it have been a fluke that I was diagnosed with severe SA with the belt around my chest being so tight...or something else?

I will say that I can't stand the ramp up time of 4 - I feel like I can't catch my breath <<< just throwin' that out there...

TIA

[Diamondminek]

I think it's more nicely you were diagnosed correctly, and have been lucky to start treatment That is very effective, and that you have taken to really well.
As for the ramp, you can switch that off, shorten the time, or raise the pressure it starts at. Since you start at 6 anyway, I'd just switch it off.

[Julie]

The ramp's a convenience for those who need it, not 'therapy', so you can turn it off altogether as most of us have done.

[dhoppe]

I'm with the others, I would just turn the ramp up off. I've been on my therapy for 3 weeks now and have taken to it quite well. I prescription is fixed at 10 but I also started with a ramp up from 4. Based on suggestions I've seen here, I turned the ramp up off after the 4th night and haven't looked back!

[Mudrock63]

My pressure is 18-20cm and I don't need or use the ramp. Definitely a feature many don't need.

[Morchella]

For the first month, I also kind of wondered if my sleep study had been a fluke, because my AHI's were always below 1.0, and some nights flat out zero! But I was still sleeping sort of lightly because I hadn't yet fully adjusted to the mask. I'm almost two months in now, and now that I don't even notice the mask I'm sleeping more deeply and ending up more often in the position that makes my apnea worst (REM sleep on my back). So now when I look at my graphs in SleepyHead (have you downloaded this free program yet?) I see occasional clusters of OAs where I'll stop breathing once a minute for 10 minutes or so. It's a sobering reminder of just how bad my sleep used to be.

[BlackSpinner]

The reason you are on cpap is because you have severe OSA.

The job of cpap therapy is to eliminate the problem by keeping your throat open. It is obviously doing a great job.

What you are suggesting is like saying "ìf a diabetic takes insulin and reduces their blood sugar to normal then were they misdiagnosed?"

[Gryphon]

especially since you don't like it - the first thing I would do is turn the RAMP off. That's one of the things that most DME's and Doctor's don't care if we change. So I'd go in and turn it off.

The de-saturation and the events per hour before are a pretty clear indication that something was going on with your breathing and CPAP should help. I'd give it more time and wouldn't be afraid to change anything in the top level area of your machine that would make you more comfortable. Things like RAMP or the exhalation relief I would lay down and make a change and breath with it for a bit and see what feels the best and most natural to you. Not everyone is the same.

[ronswan]

Thanks all - this helps a lot.

I've downloaded SleepyHead and like it.

When will I start to have more energy?

[RogerSC]

Keep in mind that your cpap only reports the apneas that it couldn't prevent. You don't know how many apneas the cpap actually prevented. So a low AHI simply means that your therapy is working, not that you're not having a lot of apneas that your cpap has prevented.

Sounds like cpap is working well for you. Glad to hear it!

[Bons]

Ronswan, your score is good because the therapy is working. And don't forget that it treats but doesn't cure sleep apnea. Not using the cpap would be like someone with diabetes saying they don't need insulin anymore because their blood sugar is normal. Normal because of the treatment.