Post
by CpapWife » Fri May 30, 2014 9:29 pm
Lazer1234 - Does your mother show symptoms of sleep apnea - e.g. waking up choking/gasping for air, tired even after 8-9 hours of sleep, etc. If so, a sleep study could be called for. She might not need a cpap, she might need something else.
If you stress to her that if she has a problem, it will shorten her life and maybe by decades and you want her around for (grandkids, your wedding, whatever big events might happen that she might want to be around for).
If she has decent insurance, better to go find out then to not know. Sleep Apnea can be scary as it does nasty things to a person's health untreated and we hear rumers of how bad the cpaps are to use and how it won't help us. But in reality, being diagnosed correctly and treated for it can make a big difference on day to day life (feeling sooo much better), and also on length of life.
sleepinglass - You need to get him tested. He may have more hypoapneas, my husband is more that way. Lots of shallow breathing and no visible breathing for 30 seconds at a time - often (without cpap). Have you watched him while he slept to see how he breathes? What about getting some of his friends to try it, if he is lower them them all..... Is he into science, what about broaching it as an investigation or experiment? Tell him knowledge is power. Have some serious talks. Round up some friends to have some serious talks. But his O2 is pretty low.
There seems to be 2 trains of thought. It is not that bad so don't worry about it, vs I want to be as healthy as I can (e.g. not let low o2 or sleep apnea put regular constant strain on my body). You need to decide what camp you are in and what camp your partner is in. My & Hubby are in the we want to live to be 90 and not be decrepit camp (e.g. camp #2).
Hosecrusher - we have Tried!!! to get a cardiologist interested in hubby, but he is not sick enough for them to care (he is on BP medicine & cholesterol medicine both low doses, just got a second BP medicine diagnosed, but he doesn't need bypass surgery). He did pass full testing - stress test, CT scan, etc. and was pronounced just fine other than having some plaque show up in the CT scan. But that was 2 years ago and I was not loving that Dr on our followup. We have such a hard time finding Drs that don't say take a pill & come back next year, we finally found an endocrinologist we like and a sleep Dr we like (I feel like I am on a roll ). We are trying a nephrology (kidney) Dr that specializes in high blood pressure as we had a Dr friend we trust say they are the experts in BP - so maybe he can give some insights, but that is a month or so out (was a 3 mo waiting list for one we thought would be good). Our goal to get him healthy and off all meds.
OH, I just remembered, hubby has lots of PVCs (premature ventricular contractions). Something that alerts non cardiologists, but the cardiologists just note it and get bored. Again, maybe we haven't found a good one, but he has been in urgent care a couple of times the last few years for unrelated issues and they note them but don't get real concerned. Apparently from what I have found online, they are not of concern in and of themselves. Athletes get them a lot as their hearts have learned to adjust to what they put them thru rather than a regular steady beat. They are only a concern if combined with other health issues that hubby doesn't have. But again, I would like to find a good cardiologist to confirm things (2nd opinion).
I know that the lead oximeter might be giving a false reading, so I think we will try the polar HR strap (we have a good one) just to see what it says. Maybe that plus the oximeter and searching once more for a good cardiologist will make some progress.
FYI - the magic numbers for insurance covering oxygen is 4 or more minutes of under 88%.
And our cm550fw was pretty darn close to the DME one in readings,
