Last time you've seen any sleep professional? (poll)

[JohnBFisher]

I'm a bit of an oddball here. I see my neurologist / sleep specialist every six months. But he is managing my other neurological symptoms as well as my disability, so I need the periodic check up to track my progress.

[Gazhacks]

I'm a bit of an oddball here. I see my neurologist / sleep specialist every six months. But he is managing my other neurological symptoms as well as my disability, so I need the periodic check up to track my progress.

Why would you think your an oddball? We all have issues of some form or another not just OSA. I have OSA but Im also a nighshift worker (Fulltime) A carer for my Mrs who has MS(Full-time) I dont have time to sleep, I maybe tired but you cant stop me laughing Oh did I also mention I have 4 step-children and 4 of my own. Thankfully no pets Its not my fault the winters were long

[xenablue]

I've seen my neurologist twice - right after my sleep study to discuss the results, my options etc., then at 3-months after dx to discuss my progress/success/failure.

To THERAPIST - My neuro was SO IMPRESSED THAT I TAKE SUCH AN INTEREST IN, AND RESPONSIBILITY FOR MY THERAPY, and saw that I understand what my data means, she only wants to see me again if I have any issues, or feel I need to change anything. She loved that I came to my appointment armed with print-outs of every night's data and was happy for me to 'experiment' with my settings and pressure (yes, she knows I can access the clinical menu) within certain limitations.

My neuro gave me some guidelines for my therapy - i.e. - keep my AHI under 5.0, leaks under 24L/min etc. I'm more than happy with her recommendations, and she is very happy with my grasp of my therapy and knows I learned most of what I know here on this forum.

If 'most here are out of touch with reality', I consider myself one of the 'most' group, then my highly qualified and respected neurologist must also be out of touch with reality.

Cheers,
xena

[chunkyfrog]

I last saw my respiratory/sleep doc about 13 months ago, with an appointment to see him again in a few days--just routine.
When patients are knowledgeable and self-monitoring, it reduces the amount of the doctor's time wasted on complications
that should NEVER happen, and allow him to spend time on the complex and difficult cases that really need his undivided attention.
I have no problem working towards my optimum health, so that my doctor can concentrate on patients who really NEED him.
The REALITY is that health care is EVERYONE'S job. Only those not able can opt out. Supplies are limited.

[porete]

I've seen my sleep specialist twice in two months. A vast majority of people on CPAP that I talk with have no interest whatsoever to learn more about their disease, their machines or their data.

maybe true over the water but here we are NOT allowed to see our data, I even took my hospital to the Houses of Parliment to fight for my right to check my settings and data on my machine and still they wont help. You should count yourselves very lucky to be allowed just to download your data and browse over it, I would give a week off my mask for the privalige.

We here in the US should be VERY grateful, however many times we take the freedom we have for granted...We may not realize how blessed we are until (if) Obamacare goes into effect. Scary.

[Paul56]

I have no DME.

I have no sleep doctor.

I purchase supplies from cpap.com out of pocket.

My PCP writes my scripts for whatever I want or need.

I read data on the machine every morning and occasionally download
to check more thoroughly... usually when something major changes.

Now if losing a few extra pounds was only that easy.

[xenablue]

I'm a bit of an oddball here. I see my neurologist / sleep specialist every six months. But he is managing my other neurological symptoms as well as my disability, so I need the periodic check up to track my progress.

Not an oddball at all, John - I see a cardio, endo, CDE and PCP every 6-months because of other health issues that DO require monitoring and follow-up due to their nature, not my negligence in taking care of these issues - so it's very understandable why you would need to see your neurologist regularly.

Cheers,
xena

[Lizistired]

We here in the US should be VERY grateful, however many times we take the freedom we have for granted...We may not realize how blessed we are until (if) Obamacare goes into effect. Scary.

Why do you say that?

[idamtnboy]

We here in the US should be VERY grateful, however many times we take the freedom we have for granted...We may not realize how blessed we are until (if) Obamacare goes into effect. Scary.

Why do you say that?

Because he's an RR adoring R who's enamored by RP!

I heard the other Texans sure do wish that RP would become Prez. It would get him out of their state!!

[Mr Bill]

I was surprised but as I talk to people who are on Cpap, most show no interest in seeing their data.

See! There we go again. "Most patients have no interest in data."

Indeed most patients do not have an interest in data. This is the reason that DMEs typically supply only "bricks". It is ridiculous to campaign for the more expense machines when most of the market has no interest.

Many of you in this forum are out of touch with reality.

Its been a few months. My DME says he no longer needs compliance data. He is sure I am in it for the long haul. I think as you learn to solve the immediate problems then you start to take a longer view. I cannot imagine ever stopping tracking my data. Many of us would have given up if not for quick responses from other forum members that let us know we were on a path and they had been there. However, I grant you, some of us are enthusiasts.

Say, Therapist, your post sounds familiar. Have you posted recently under another name?

[Lizistired]

We here in the US should be VERY grateful, however many times we take the freedom we have for granted...We may not realize how blessed we are until (if) Obamacare goes into effect. Scary.

Why do you say that?

Because he's an RR adoring R who's enamored by RP!

I heard the other Texans sure do wish that RP would become Prez. It would get him out of their state!!

Yeah, I think the last one took 4000 of them to DC with him. Look what that got us. Still paying for it.

[Kody]

I last saw mine a couple weeks ago. They said unless there's a problem, don't need to see them again for another six months.

[Lizistired]

Back on the original topic, I am trying to compile questions for my sleep doc follow up.
The only thing I can come up with is "What about my O2 dropping even without flagged apneas?" Which involves my O2 monitoring.
My AHI is <1 so I just don't see the point in going to my follow up. Am I missing something. I got the help I needed here.
If my O2 is dropping I would assume it is lung function. It occurs during apneas <10 seconds in duration. Just guessing that my sleep doc isn't going to be of much help. Might as well talk to my PCP.
Thoughts?
Opinions?

[Muse-Inc]

Back on the original topic, I am trying to compile questions for my sleep doc follow up.
The only thing I can come up with is "What about my O2 dropping even without flagged apneas?" Which involves my O2 monitoring. My AHI is <1...If my O2 is dropping I would assume it is lung function. It occurs during apneas <10 seconds in duration...

Since switching to an S9 Autoset (from my S8) my AHI is consistenly under 0.5, often 0, with about half of the events I do have reported as clear airway events. Now, even with that excellent AHI, my pulse-ox shows I occasionally desat from baseline at the moment (97 --> 90 or 95-->87 for example) and, rarely, even lower; however, the desat never lasts longer than 15-18 secs. So far, I'm not concerned with them because there is absolutely no simultaneous increase in my pulse nor do I wake up (that I'm aware of) which makes me think my hyper-sensitive brain is not sending panic signals with these desaturations. I believe these are likely caused by the much higher stress I've felt lately as they are a recent phenomena, so I'm careful to practice my stress mgmt techniques, try to get more sleep (mine's not great right now as I'm having issues falling asleep and waking about 4-5AM & having trouble falling asleep again), and avoiding/reducing exposure to the known stressors in my life.

Things I'd figure out first: Is your pulse rising in response to the desats? Are they common or rare? Did they start or are they associated with anything in your waking life, change in diet/routine/drugs/supplements? Do you wake up following them? Remember a certain number of centrals are considered normal.

[teknomom]

teknomom wrote:
I was surprised but as I talk to people who are on Cpap, most show no interest in seeing their data.


See! There we go again. "Most patients have no interest in data."

I resent that a certain person took my original remarks out of context. I live in a small town and have talked to a FEW people in this area about cpap and most of them haven't shown an interest in their data, BUT I think that most people SHOULD follow their data and I am willing to help them. I am very much in touch with reality including the reality of what my therapy did for me last night! I don't see that negative remarks have any helpful purpose so I simply ignore them but saw this quoted on another post and had to respond. My intention was certainly NOT to add any support to the misquoting, misguided poster.