My Mom who is 80 has been having mini-strokes and has been diagnosed as having a noncurable neurological disease. I always remember her being a heavy snorer though she was very thin. Friday I forego using my remstar auto and had it set between 4 and 6 for her to try. Her AHI was 30 and in the 3.50 hours she used it she had 80 toa. Does this indicate a moderate rating. Told her to go to the doctor and get a study done but I would like to order her a machine right away as I don't want her to wait 4 weeks for the sleep study and 2 weeks for the doctor's approval before being able to order one. Her life expectancy is not long with this disease and her strokes are getting more frequent. I don't mind spending the 350 for a machine and a mask. What is your opinion?
Does My Mom Needs a CPAP machine?
7 posts
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Does My Mom Needs a CPAP machine?
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Getting mom a CPAP
Hi, I think you should bring it up with her MD. You may have just noticed her breathing, but she's probably had it awhile and another few wks aren't worth the risk that you're playing 'doctor' could pose. Only he can address the problem (if there is one that's not attributable to her other medical conditions, and while your intentions are wonderful (please don't misunderstand!), I wouldn't take a chance by trying to treat an 80 yr old woman with her medical bkgrnd on my own, harmless as it may seem to you, and regardless of the read-outs.
If you mom agrees, go with her to the doctor ASAP.
Bring up the snoring, see if you can get him/her interested in the recorded results (bring them along). If the doctor understands what this is about and doesn't feel second guessed by you, you might come out of the meeting with an Rx for an APAP in you hand. You can also bring anlong a copy of Barbara Thompson's paper on using APAP without a sleep study.
When you leave that meeting, you'll be in one of the following positions:
1. The doc agreed, and you have an Rx for your mom
2. The doc wants a full PSG, but agree you can use an APAP meanwhile
3. The doc disagreed, and you understand why
3. The doc disagreed, and you don't understand why. In that case, look for another doctor.
I agree that diagnosing and treating her your mom on your own, without consulting a docotor is hazardous. Doctors might not know much about the ins and out of xPAP machines and sleeping with masks - but they do know more than most of us about differential diagnoses, the other effects of your mom's illnesses, etc.
Consulting with her doctor does not necessarily mean waiting for ages for therapy to begin.
If the present doctor doesn't seem to take you seriously, and you're not conviced by whatever reason they give for delay, then I would look for another doctor.
Adding APAP to you mom's therapies without her doctor's knowledge and consent is not such a good idea - the doctor, your mom and yourself should be allies in figuring out how to give her the best quality of life for the time she has left .
Using you own machine for a preliminary diagnosis is one thing, deciding on long term therapy on your own, despite the fact that she has a doctor is quite different.
Good luck,
O.
Bring up the snoring, see if you can get him/her interested in the recorded results (bring them along). If the doctor understands what this is about and doesn't feel second guessed by you, you might come out of the meeting with an Rx for an APAP in you hand. You can also bring anlong a copy of Barbara Thompson's paper on using APAP without a sleep study.
When you leave that meeting, you'll be in one of the following positions:
1. The doc agreed, and you have an Rx for your mom
2. The doc wants a full PSG, but agree you can use an APAP meanwhile
3. The doc disagreed, and you understand why
3. The doc disagreed, and you don't understand why. In that case, look for another doctor.
I agree that diagnosing and treating her your mom on your own, without consulting a docotor is hazardous. Doctors might not know much about the ins and out of xPAP machines and sleeping with masks - but they do know more than most of us about differential diagnoses, the other effects of your mom's illnesses, etc.
Consulting with her doctor does not necessarily mean waiting for ages for therapy to begin.
If the present doctor doesn't seem to take you seriously, and you're not conviced by whatever reason they give for delay, then I would look for another doctor.
Adding APAP to you mom's therapies without her doctor's knowledge and consent is not such a good idea - the doctor, your mom and yourself should be allies in figuring out how to give her the best quality of life for the time she has left .
Using you own machine for a preliminary diagnosis is one thing, deciding on long term therapy on your own, despite the fact that she has a doctor is quite different.
Good luck,
O.
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| Mask: AirFit™ P10 Nasal Pillow CPAP Mask with Headgear |
| Additional Comments: Machine: Resmed AirSense10 for Her with Climateline heated hose ; alternating masks. |
See your Mother's doctor-adapting to the use of CPAP may have unintended consequences in a person who is medically fragile and having many ministrokes. Also what does your Mother want at this point in her life? If she is one of those people who "take to" CPAP without much difficulty it is one thing-but if she has a lot of difficulty it is another. Does she understand the diagnosis and treatment? Would she fight the mask?
Faced with the choice between changing one's mind and proving that there is no need to do so, almost everyone gets busy on the proof.....Galbraith's Law
She didn't seem to have a problem using the mask although she doesn't believe she should do anything without her doctors approval. I am perhaps a little cynical about her doctors as they have basically told her there is no cure and she does not have a chance to survive the disease. I want her around for a lot longer than the short time she is expected to live and don't think a cpap machine giving her more air while sleeping could be anything but beneficial. But in case I am wrong I will wait a week for her next appointment and go with her to see the doctor.
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Guest
if it was my mom, I'd just buy her an autopap machine and mask and be done with it. I wouldn't even bother putting her through all the hassle and expense of going for a PSG, you have to weight the cost vs benefit. If you already know what the benefits are then save the cost.
I'd print out that report from the machine and take it to your primary doctor, they can make the diagnosis and write a script for a machine from that. It is only Insurance that requires a PSG for a diagnosis, if no insurance why bother.
My mom is 86 on medicare, she has had a dozen heart attacks since about 60yrs of age. She pays all her portion of the medical bills from Social Security, she feels a little sluggish one day recently, her Cardiologist orders up a another angiography (she's had like 4-5 of them already, could have seen the same thing using an UltraFast CT scan, color nuclear or other much less expensive methods). They inject the die, no change from the last Angiography, no stent or surgery needed. Yet the bill comes in at nearly $40k for that single overnight stay.
I'd print out that report from the machine and take it to your primary doctor, they can make the diagnosis and write a script for a machine from that. It is only Insurance that requires a PSG for a diagnosis, if no insurance why bother.
My mom is 86 on medicare, she has had a dozen heart attacks since about 60yrs of age. She pays all her portion of the medical bills from Social Security, she feels a little sluggish one day recently, her Cardiologist orders up a another angiography (she's had like 4-5 of them already, could have seen the same thing using an UltraFast CT scan, color nuclear or other much less expensive methods). They inject the die, no change from the last Angiography, no stent or surgery needed. Yet the bill comes in at nearly $40k for that single overnight stay.
Sometimes diseases are incurable.
Sometimes tests have to be done in order to rule out things. A negative result does not mean the test itself was unnecessary.
And it's the doctors who have to sit there and in their very presence remind us that our dear, invincible parents are going to die, and if they die, clearly we will do that too.
When angry, sad and terrified, practically nothing is easier for us than shooting the messenger, or in this case, distrusting and discrediting the doctors.
It is simply not true that only insurance requires a PSG.
If om15's mom has had a number of ministrokes, by now her apneas might theoretically be central - and an APAP many not be the treatment of choice. Whether or not her disease may cause central apneas is something her neurologist could know - and it is up to him to decide whether the hassle of a PSG for this ill woman is worth the better quality of life she might get from therapy. She might benefit tremendously from an ST bi-pap, not all from an APAP, or not at all from either of them. Who's to say she doesn't actually need a ventilator? Om15? People on the forum who never diagnosed her, and don't even know what her neurological disease is?
Doctors decide under conditions of uncertainty. They are not omniscient. It is up to the patient to decide if they trust or distrust the doctor's way of thinking.
If a doctor thinks a test is necessary, it is up to the doctor to request it. If a patient thinks a test is unnecessary, it is up to the patient to decide to forego it, and accept responsibility for any results. I notice guest is quick at foergoing a theoretical PSG for his/her mom (based on the conviction that it is necesary only for insurance purposes) and yet did nothing to forego "another angiography" in practice. Despite apparently knowing for sure that there are no benefits to it.
I assume most of the people on this forum have jobs. I assume an absolute minority of them have managed to go throught their professional lives without making mistakes. How many of us know that our honest mistakes can kill a person? How many of us have to pay a fortune in malpractice insurance? How many of us symoblize infirmity and death to our clients?
Death is inevitable. And any doctor who makes you thing it isn't is a charlatan. And hating the doctor who reminds us of it will do nothing to change that sad fact.
May all of us make the best decisions we can in our lives.
O.
Sometimes tests have to be done in order to rule out things. A negative result does not mean the test itself was unnecessary.
And it's the doctors who have to sit there and in their very presence remind us that our dear, invincible parents are going to die, and if they die, clearly we will do that too.
When angry, sad and terrified, practically nothing is easier for us than shooting the messenger, or in this case, distrusting and discrediting the doctors.
It is simply not true that only insurance requires a PSG.
If om15's mom has had a number of ministrokes, by now her apneas might theoretically be central - and an APAP many not be the treatment of choice. Whether or not her disease may cause central apneas is something her neurologist could know - and it is up to him to decide whether the hassle of a PSG for this ill woman is worth the better quality of life she might get from therapy. She might benefit tremendously from an ST bi-pap, not all from an APAP, or not at all from either of them. Who's to say she doesn't actually need a ventilator? Om15? People on the forum who never diagnosed her, and don't even know what her neurological disease is?
Doctors decide under conditions of uncertainty. They are not omniscient. It is up to the patient to decide if they trust or distrust the doctor's way of thinking.
If a doctor thinks a test is necessary, it is up to the doctor to request it. If a patient thinks a test is unnecessary, it is up to the patient to decide to forego it, and accept responsibility for any results. I notice guest is quick at foergoing a theoretical PSG for his/her mom (based on the conviction that it is necesary only for insurance purposes) and yet did nothing to forego "another angiography" in practice. Despite apparently knowing for sure that there are no benefits to it.
I assume most of the people on this forum have jobs. I assume an absolute minority of them have managed to go throught their professional lives without making mistakes. How many of us know that our honest mistakes can kill a person? How many of us have to pay a fortune in malpractice insurance? How many of us symoblize infirmity and death to our clients?
Death is inevitable. And any doctor who makes you thing it isn't is a charlatan. And hating the doctor who reminds us of it will do nothing to change that sad fact.
May all of us make the best decisions we can in our lives.
O.
_________________
| Mask: AirFit™ P10 Nasal Pillow CPAP Mask with Headgear |
| Additional Comments: Machine: Resmed AirSense10 for Her with Climateline heated hose ; alternating masks. |
7 posts
• Page 1 of 1