At sea level?

[doety]

I have central sleep apnea and use a CPAP with an oxygen feed. I live in Denver, but will be going to L.A. for a few days. I plan to take the CPAP, but wonder if it's okay to not worry about that oxygen concentrator. I asked my doc, a pulmonologist, what would happen and he said he'd never seen any studies. Any ideas, guesses? I'd appreciate it. Sure would simplify my trip.

[rested gal]

I'd pin your pulmonologist down a little more about it. He's more familiar with your medical history and why you were prescribed supplemental O2 at night in the first place, along with CPAP at the elevation you live at. Surely he could venture an educated opinion as to whether it would be ok for you to use just CPAP at a much lower elevation.

Perhaps he doesn't want to say, "ok" on the off chance that something untoward happen to you and he gets sued. Maybe he's being overly cautious with no more answer for you than "haven't seen any studies" about it. I'd talk to him some more about it.

After starting CPAP, have you ever been given an overnight recording pulse oximeter test for one night, sleeping at home with just CPAP and no O2?

[gschamel]

I have central sleep apnea and use a CPAP with an oxygen feed. I live in Denver, but will be going to L.A. for a few days. I plan to take the CPAP, but wonder if it's okay to not worry about that oxygen concentrator. I asked my doc, a pulmonologist, what would happen and he said he'd never seen any studies. Any ideas, guesses? I'd appreciate it. Sure would simplify my trip.

You get approximately 20% less oxygen in Denver than you do at sea level. I looked into this because I live at 9600 feet just west of Denver and I also need O2 at night. I get about 70% of sea level O2. This web site: http://www.altitude.org/oxygen_levels.php can give you some good background info.

As an experiment I took my pulse-ox meter with me to work to see what my day time levels were. At home at 9600 feet I run right at 90% when active and at work it was 95%. At night I was running 88% and lower, now with 2lpm of O2 I run 94%. Granted that this is only 1 example but if you are running around 2lpm O2, I think you would be fine at sea level. (BUT I'm an engineer PhD and NOT an MD, so don't take medical advice from me - the O2 info is legitimate)

George

[doety]

thanks for the replies. My doc just retired. I've had several sleep tests, but none recently without the oxygen.
I went to take a sleep test at a hospital and it was laughable. I have restless legs, made worse by my own brain when I'm under stressed or feel trapped -- I got into the hospital bed at 9, then got out and danced/walked/etc around until almost 4 a.m. During the very long night, I tried many times to sleep, but seemed impossible. But in the few minutes they got me on tape, he said I was getting enough oxygen. But that, of course, doesn't address my question.

[Roger2]

I have central sleep apnea and use a CPAP with an oxygen feed. I live in Denver, but will be going to L.A. for a few days. I plan to take the CPAP, but wonder if it's okay to not worry about that oxygen concentrator. I asked my doc, a pulmonologist, what would happen and he said he'd never seen any studies. Any ideas, guesses? I'd appreciate it. Sure would simplify my trip.

I am in Englewood and am also on external oxygen 24/7 for my copd problems. My flow rate for daytime is 3.5 ltm to 8 lpm when active like walking in the morning or the usual household tasks. When I am at sea level, I don’t use external oxygen at all during the day as my saturation level stays around 90 - 92 percent. Per National Jewish, anything at 90 or up is all right. When I have been at sea level in the past few years I kept a check with my portable oximeter and without oxygen I was fine. I am not sure about the cpap usage though as I was told to keep that at 4 lpm running into the cpap and they may jack that up some. I will make sure to ask them this week about the cpap at sea level.

I can’t believe that National Jewish has not made some kind of study on this since their clientele comes there from all over the world and I would presume from varied elevations. I will ask this week and will pass on any information I get (if any).


Roger

[bayourest]

I have no idea except that I can tell you that when I began xpap in New Orleans (below sea level) I got great results from the point of view of AHI scores and then when I returned to New England I got much higher AHI scores at the same machine settings.
Heck, it's just another reason I'd like to be back in NOLA!!

[doety]

Thanks Roger -- that would be great if you could ask. I'm going on my trip Aug. 30.
I don't use oxygen during the day and when people tell me all those numbers, I'm afraid I don't know what they're talking about. I'm sure I should be much more careful.

Love the picture of NO....I'm from Alabama and used to go there all the time. Great place. Best food. Best music.

[doety]

Hi Roger....Were you able to get any info on the sea level question? I've pushed back my trip to Sept; 13. You're in Englewood? Did you catch the big bike race this weekend? I live on Capitol Hill and biked downtown -- it was incredible. They estimated 10K in front of the Capitol at the end, for the awards.
I read your profile....good work! I went for a while to Our Savior's in central Denver. They have missionaries going to Nmibia (sp?) to write down the stories that used to be passed on at night (before TV came along).