lost weight - do i still need cpap / apap?

[mimi7grands]

I've been using apap for a couple of years now. I've lost more than 100 pounds since it was prescribed. I'm thinkin' maybe I don't need it anymore but can't afford a sleep study right now.

My original setting was max 8. After losing weight, I tried setting the pressure to max 5, min 4.

I consistently get an AHI around 1.1 with a central score of around .9. I tried turning the max pressure up to 10 and the AHI went up to 1.8, with the centrals going to 1.4. Clearly that didn't work.

I'm wondering if such a low pressure (max 5) provides much therapy. If not, maybe I could safely stop it on my own...? (Or should keep going until I can afford a sleep study?)

I'm also wondering if the score of around 1 for centrals is okay or something I should check into.

Thanks very much. I'm glad this forum is here. I couldn't find anything online that was much help.

[wkosturko]

You really need the sleep study done. Anytime drastic weight loss occurs this is recommended. Congrats on the weight loss!

[Kilgore Trout]

+1 to wkosturko's response... I'd get another sleep study. That will tell you definitively whether or not you're still a hosehead

[thimarine]

I have lost 40 pounds since starting CPAP. My pressure went down from 14 to 16 to 9.8 or less. My AHI is consistently .2 or less. Whenever I have fallen asleep without my machine, I have felt like the pre CPAP days--- groggy and with brain fog. I have had sleep apnea since my late 20's. My wife would wake me up when I stopped breathing. I weighed around 165 lbs then. I'm 6'2" and weigh 215 now. I wouldn't think of quitting CPAP because i know, for me, it's a lifetime thing. However, I understand it's an individual thing. You may very well be able to get by without it depending on how bad your OSA was when you were first diagnosed. Mine was severe. The only way to tell is a sleep study. You can set your machine, if you have the manual, to do a split study. I'm not sure how it's done and if I'd want to do it myself, but it's sort of like giving yourself your own sleep study. Me, personally, I would go back and ask for another sleep study. You may be one of the lucky ones. Good luck.

[Lizistired]

Do you notice a difference in the way you feel with different settings? With and without? That's really what counts if you can tell. Sometimes I think I would be better off if I wasn't fooling with the hose and fixing leaks. Last night I just took it off... felt like crap today. Wish it was easy. Best of luck to you.

[mimi7grands]

Thanks for the input. I can't afford the sleep study right now and I'm hopeless with data. I was originally diagnosed with "mild" sleep apnea but my cardiologist wanted me on cpap anyway because there's a correlation between sleep apnea and atrial fibrillation, which I have.

I definitely felt better when I started out with cpap - no more wanting a nap when I drove more than an hour. I *think* I still feel better when I use it but I'm so suggestible I'm not sure.

I wonder if the centrals are caused by using the cpap when I don't really need it. Guess I'll just have to wait until I can pop for the study!

I'll try going to 4 at max and see if the indexes stay the same. I wish I could turn it all the way down then I'd know.

[SleepingUgly]

An oximeter would be helpful too...

[JointPain]

Congratulations on the weight loss. That's a great achievement.

I quit being compliant and I think one of the reasons was that I lost weight, became fitter and didn't feel too bad on those occasional days I skipped the hose. So, I skipped more and more often until it was the norm not the rule. I didn't consciously decide to quit, but effectively that's what happened.

Now I've put the weight back on, my sleep apnea is back, my blood pressure is so high I need drugs, and I am a prediabetic. And that happened gradually too, so I didn't really notice it. (I can't blame it all on the sleep apnea, but it was probably a factor.)

So, I hope I can undo some of that, and I won't be giving the CPAP up again.

I would definitely recommend you get another sleep study before stopping therapy. I would also suggest that if you do stop, you should put in place some kind of monitoring plan to ensure that you continue to not need it.

[Lizistired]

When I think how long I went without it before being diagnosed, I wouldn't have a second thought about skipping a night or two to see how I would feel without it. I have an oximeter, but that can cause arrousals too.
I napped out on the couch last week and was suprised when I woke up and it was 4:30 AM! I wasn't disoriented, I didn't feel like crap... I went to bed with the hose but never really got anymore sleep. The world didn't come to an end.

[mimi7grands]

I just read about some studies of people with OSA who'd had weight loss surgery and lost a fair amount of week. Almost all of them thought they no longer needed CPAP. After a sleep study, turns out only one of them truly didn't. I think I'll keep using it until I can get a sleep study.

Re using an oximeter. That's a really good idea except that the oximeter I bought has never worked right! Systems really aren't my thing. I think they don't like me.

I've actually gone to the S9 now and thought I'd like to have the data. Unfortunately, I have a Mac - it'll run Windows but I (and a tech who helped me) have not been able to get VMWare Fusion to run correctly. So I still can't run Windows!

One of these days, I'll get a PC. In retrospect, although I like my Mac, especially the screen, I'd buy a PC. There's too much software I'm not able to use.

Thanks again for all the replies.

Mary

[purple]

I am guessing you are using Snow Leopard with the Mac. Get Boot camp and install Windows in the second partition. If you still have Apple Care, call them on the phone and ask them to step you through that.

[Breathe Jimbo]

Afib and untreated sleap apnea are a lethal combination for a stroke. Don't even think about it until you have a new sleep study, no matter how long that takes.

It is fairly easy to set up Boot Camp on a Mac to run Windows. Boot Camp creates a dual-boot setup, which allows you to run either OS X or Windows, but not both, when you start your Mac. When you choose to boot Windows, your Mac is operating as a PC. You can then install and run ResScan on your Windows system exactly as you would on a PC. When you want to run ResScan, you simply restart your Mac, hold down the Option key, and choose to boot Windows. Once Windows starts, you run ResScan as you would on any other PC hardware. In effect, Boot Camp turns your Mac into both a Mac and a PC, so you do not need to buy a PC. If you poke around the Apple Boot Camp support web site, you will find a PDF that you print out and follow step by step. The only thing that you absolutely must have is a Windows installation disc that will work with any computer, rather than a system restore disc for a specific PC only. The Windows installation disc does not need to be fully up to date because you can install service packs and other updates after you install the base Windows system from the installation disc. It is cheaper to buy a new copy of Windows, if necessary, than to buy an entire PC.

Here is the link to the Apple Boot Camp web site: http://www.apple.com/support/bootcamp/ Click on Installation Guide and then download and print the correct one.

IAE, congratulations on losing 100 lbs! This week I went back to the gym and started using the iPhone app LoseIt! with a goal of losing 86 lbs. Four down the first week, but that may be mostly water.

[Guest]

I've been using apap for a couple of years now. I've lost more than 100 pounds since it was prescribed. I'm thinkin' maybe I don't need it anymore but can't afford a sleep study right now.

And I'm thinkin' maybe you'd better be careful about getting off of that machine. One of the theories flying around is that SDB causes people to gain weight. If that is true for you, it is possible that if you quit using the machine, you might gain the weight back. Does it not occur to you that XPAP therapy might have been a factor in losing all of that weight?

Is there some rush to get off of the machine? If I had lost as much weight as you have, and if I thought there was even the slighted chance XPAP therapy was a factor, you'd have to kill me to take the machine from me. Good job on the weight loss. Don't blow it with a poor decision.

[Slartybartfast]

Um . . . isn't anyone going to ask her how she lost that much weight?

[mimi7grands]

You've convinced me! I'm staying on CPAP/APAP until I can get another sleep study.

The tech who installed VMWare said it was a lot better than boot camp BUT I'm not so sure. I'll look into running boot camp. It frosts me because I just spent $70 on a VMWare upgrade and $130 having someone install it and do some other things with my computer. The theoretical advantage with VMWare is that you can run both Windows and Leopard at the same time and just toggle back and forth.

Losing weight...

I'm actually down 124 pounds from my all-time highest 10 years ago. I have another 35 to go. I've had good luck using the MFP (myfitnesspal.com) site to log my food. MFP also logs your exercise and adjusts your calorie target for the day to reflect your exercise. It was the first time I "got" the correlation.

I have MFP friends too whose results I see and who see mine. The nice thing about MFP is that it reports only the positive!

I also eat tons of fresh fruit and veggies - and love them! I never used to. Part of it comes from cutting out refined sugar, starches, etc. The fruit tastes much better. The other part comes from learning how to cook the veggies. My mom used to cook "fresh frozen" veggies. There's an oxymoron if I ever heard one. I used to pour ketchup over my peas to try to choke them down. Even the dog knew better.

Now, I coat fresh veggies with a little olive oil (1/2 t does it) and roast (bake) them in a hot oven (475 to 500). Asparagus takes just 8-9 minutes, most other veggies a little more - usually about 15 minutes.

I have never felt better. At least not since I was a kid and that's a long time ago! People use all kinds of diets successfully. I think the weight loss sticks better for the people who eat healthy foods. (I may be prejudiced but I don't think so!)

Thanks again for your advice. This is a great forum and you all were terrific to take the time to respond.