suggestions for a teenager

[socaljohn]

I am a 45 year old male and have recently been diagnosed with apnea. Unfortunately, I switched my ppo this year to a high deductible plan $3000, as I had only been to the Dr. once in 5 years for a required physical to volunteer scuba dive at a local aquarium. Anyway, after my wife said my snoring was getting worse and I would sometimes gasp for air in the middle of the night I went to my primary care physician who had to order my records from archives. I was sent to a specialist who referred me to a sleep study. I never slept during the day, nodded off only while watching TV on the couch, but did have a fog that I couldn't really describe, I thought it was old age creeping in. I called the sleep study center and they called my insurance, unfortunately with my new plan I would have to meet the $3k before they would pay for anything. The sleep center lowered the charges from $2700 that they bill insurance to $850 payable via credit card. I was diagnosed with apnea 38 times an hour and received a call that the Dr. had prescribed a Cpap. Once again, my insurance was not going to cover this so I called a friend. He had an older Resmed s8 Autoset Vantage with humidifier that he never uses anymore. I purchased a new hose, new wisp mask and filter for the machine. I also thoroughly cleaned the humidifier and gave it a shot after finding the clinical guide on one of these forums. The results were good, but the machine was too noisy for my wife. I found someone on craigslist that had a ResMed s9 Elite with H5i and sealed climate line and travel lines. She was prescribed the machine and hated it. The machine had 250 hours and I picked it up for $200 with a Swift FX setup that she never used. I had her throw away the masks she had tried as they were full face and too small for my use. The wife is very happy with the very quiet S9 and I like the setup quite well. I am feeling more alert during the day and actually look forward to putting on my mask for quality sleep every night. I am about 10 days in and ranging from .9-2.0 AHI on my readings at a pressure of 6.0. I am in the process of buying an s9 autoset and waiting for shipping confirmation.

About my teenager, he sleeps a lot at different times, needs to be woke up sometime 3 times to get ready for school. He has put on at least 20lbs in the last 6 months and generally has low energy. These symptoms all seem pretty typical for a teenager, but today I walked in his room and noticed how loud he was snoring. I am wondering if I should hook him up to the s8 Autoset that I have not yet returned to see if I can get some readings. I want to make sure I am not doing any harm. I was thinking of setting it up with a range of 4-10 and just checking the results. My other option is to go to the Dr. and have to fork out another $850 for a sleep study for him if prescribed by the specialist.

I appreciate any input.
thanks
John

[chunkyfrog]

He's a kid. Many of us would encourage you to experiment on yourself, but---
since he is a kid (teenager), I would spring for the sleep study--but that's just me.
Still, as long as you have the machine, and your son is OK with it (or even curious), maybe going for it's not a bad idea.

[Julie]

I would not set the machine starting out that low - 4 will feel like suffocation, so 6-7 might be a better low pressure, and 12 for the high one (because so many of us seem to hover around 10 so much of the time).

But I would at least get his MD to first check his bloodwork, thyroid, different things, before assuming its apnea... after all you don't want to 'play' with your son's health (though you may well be correct).

[Pugsy]

How much data can you get off the S8 machine? I know it has some data available on the LCD screen.
I did what you were thinking about doing on my sister...used my APAP to screen here just to see if anything showed up and the pressure moved (which would indicate the machine sensed a need to move) and as it turned out it never moved and she didn't have much show up on her software reports so unlikely she had OSA. Now her husband was a different story...

I agree with Julie about the minimum pressure unless he is okay with 4 cm. My sister lasted about 30 seconds at 4 cm and ripped the mask off saying I was trying to suffocate her. Ended up using 6 cm starting.
Now some people are okay at 4 but it is very common for 4 cm to feel like we are suffocating..technically we aren't but it sure feels that way.

Just remember that even 4 cm offers some therapy value so it wouldn't be impossible for nothing to show up when using 4 because 4 cm can resolve any issues. But the majority of people would need more than 4 or 5 cm pressure to prevent airway collapse.

Not all people who snore have sleep apnea and not all sleep apnea people snore but it warrants investigation when snoring is present.

[bwexler]

I would probably spring for a recording pulse oximeter $150+/- and check his O2 levels for a couple nights. That is often used as a pre test to justify a sleep study. You can also use it, as many here do, to monitor the effectiveness of your therapy. Your doctor can arrange for you to rent one, but i suspect 2 nights rental and a follow up would cost more than buying your own from http://www.pulseoxstore.com/

[BlackSpinner]

You can get a home study for a lot less then you paid. The send the equipment, he wears it for a few nights and you send it back. Ten they score it and send you a prescription or the results to your doctors. The price is somewhere around $300.

[musculus]

You can use S9 auto and sleepyhead to test your son.

Just a precaution that young people ususlly have small AHI numbers. Usually it's the quick arousal from airway obstruction that disrupt their sleep.
So low AHI doesn't rule out SDB.

I am a 45 year old male and have recently been diagnosed with apnea. Unfortunately, I switched my ppo this year to a high deductible plan $3000, as I had only been to the Dr. once in 5 years for a required physical to volunteer scuba dive at a local aquarium. Anyway, after my wife said my snoring was getting worse and I would sometimes gasp for air in the middle of the night I went to my primary care physician who had to order my records from archives. I was sent to a specialist who referred me to a sleep study. I never slept during the day, nodded off only while watching TV on the couch, but did have a fog that I couldn't really describe, I thought it was old age creeping in. I called the sleep study center and they called my insurance, unfortunately with my new plan I would have to meet the $3k before they would pay for anything. The sleep center lowered the charges from $2700 that they bill insurance to $850 payable via credit card. I was diagnosed with apnea 38 times an hour and received a call that the Dr. had prescribed a Cpap. Once again, my insurance was not going to cover this so I called a friend. He had an older Resmed s8 Autoset Vantage with humidifier that he never uses anymore. I purchased a new hose, new wisp mask and filter for the machine. I also thoroughly cleaned the humidifier and gave it a shot after finding the clinical guide on one of these forums. The results were good, but the machine was too noisy for my wife. I found someone on craigslist that had a ResMed s9 Elite with H5i and sealed climate line and travel lines. She was prescribed the machine and hated it. The machine had 250 hours and I picked it up for $200 with a Swift FX setup that she never used. I had her throw away the masks she had tried as they were full face and too small for my use. The wife is very happy with the very quiet S9 and I like the setup quite well. I am feeling more alert during the day and actually look forward to putting on my mask for quality sleep every night. I am about 10 days in and ranging from .9-2.0 AHI on my readings at a pressure of 6.0. I am in the process of buying an s9 autoset and waiting for shipping confirmation.

About my teenager, he sleeps a lot at different times, needs to be woke up sometime 3 times to get ready for school. He has put on at least 20lbs in the last 6 months and generally has low energy. These symptoms all seem pretty typical for a teenager, but today I walked in his room and noticed how loud he was snoring. I am wondering if I should hook him up to the s8 Autoset that I have not yet returned to see if I can get some readings. I want to make sure I am not doing any harm. I was thinking of setting it up with a range of 4-10 and just checking the results. My other option is to go to the Dr. and have to fork out another $850 for a sleep study for him if prescribed by the specialist.

I appreciate any input.
thanks
John

[socaljohn]

Thank you for all the suggestions. I am going to let him decide, he is 18. If he wants to try it I will setup with 6-10 and see if he notices any change over the weekend. He has AP tests this week, so would love to see him more alert.

[Sheriff Buford]

Let us know how it goes...

Sheriff

[echo]

I'd definitely get him in for a sleep study. If he has apnea, you will want to get a prescription too. I was snoring like a trucker as a teenager and didn't get diagnosed until I was 30. So many wasted years. But I never had desats below 92% so a pulse-ox by itself woukd not have been particularly informative. I'd also get a blood test to check for hypothyroidism.

[blackrock]

Thank you for all the suggestions. I am going to let him decide, he is 18. If he wants to try it I will setup with 6-10 and see if he notices any change over the weekend. He has AP tests this week, so would love to see him more alert.

Get a sleep study. Had you gone through the insurance the first time around, you would be half way there into meeting your deductible by now. I know retro vision is 20/20 but just saying.

[chunkyfrog]

Many insurance plans have separate "family" and "individual" deductibles.
My work plans had the family amount at double the individual amount.

[rebe]

.... I want to make sure I am not doing any harm. ...

I am thinking of errors of OMISSION like missing some medical explanation or setting him up for a couple of nights when he cannot adjust to all the gear and not doing well on his tests, or him blaming you later that you did not spend the money on him though you did it for yourself .

But hope that things work out fine no matter how you proceed.

[zoocrewphoto]

Depending on how he feels about this, you might suggest this option.

Most grocery stores will provide decent insurance for part time hours. Where I work, even a courtesy clerk bagging groceries will have decent insurance after 3 months. After deductible, which varies, but highest I have seen in my area is $1000, we have 85% coverage. If he knows he needs to get a lot of testing and equipment and wants to go that route to get this solved, then he might be willing to work a part time job long enough to get better insurance than what you currently have. If he already has a job, maybe he has some insurance already.

Back when I was a teenager, I had insurance through my job, and my parent's insurance was my secondary insurance.

[socaljohn]

Surprisingly, the $850 that I paid to the sleep center directly is going to be applied towards my insurance deductible, even though I did not have them bill insurance. I called the insurance company and they just want a detailed bill and receipt of payment. So far my son has not tried the machine. You would think after paying more than $20k per year my insurance would be better, but I thank the current administration for that. Paying for college and medical insurance would have been so much easier if we hadn't saved up and earned good incomes over the years.