My brain on cpap

[3dogstew]

I was diagnosed in 2010 with severe sleep apnea. Briefly on Cpap pressure 8 and did not do well then moved to apap( because I bugged my PCP to try it) 5-12 range. Had trouble with CA's.(had none in initial sleep study) . Went to ENT and she sent me for another sleep study for bipap but I did horrible at study..just could not breathe on Bipap The tech finally gave up put me on cpap at 5 and I slept the rest of the night no problem.. so I went to a sleep Dr and he narrowed the range to 5-8. this seemed to work until recently.

I live in Colorado (higher altitude) and had a stroke a few years before i was diagnosed with SA. The only reason I knew I had a stroke was that I had bad headaches and my PCP at that time ordered a CT scan and discovered it. My PCP chalked it up to blood pressure. Looking back I am sure I had sleep apnea then.

About a month ago I started to feel extremely tired and waking up with headaches. Thought it might be thyroid (I'm hypothyroid) but that checked out OK. I changed my apap to cpap at a pressure of 5 and still had very bad headache. I have had 2 sinus surgeries and have a least one sinus infection every year. So my PCP put me on antibiotics thinking it was a sinus infection. I do not use my machine if I have a sinus infection. At that time I came here to look for answers or ideas. I noticed that some of you use a pulse oximeter and ordered one ( Contec CMS50F) because I thought it might be interesting to see what my oxygen level was at night when not on my machine vs on the machine. After finishing the antibiotics I tried the machine again. All I can say is that I woke up in the night with severe head pain.. It started at the top of my head and went all the way down the back to the base of my neck. Could hardly function. I get headaches when I don't use the machine but now when using it they are unbearable. I called my PCP and she thinks the next step is to see my ENT. I have an appointment scheduled for July 16th. I have stopped using my machine until I see the ENT.

I have included the pulse oximeter and encore report from the last time I used it. What I find interesting is that the AHI is 2.7 which sounds great. It does show two CA's and a OA and periodic breathing. My pulse oximetry report show a sharp dip in O2 and spike in pulse at same time. I was hoping for some direction. Am I making more out of my reports ? What should I be asking my ENT. I am thinking that there is something not right with my brain. Any insights would be greatly apprreciated.





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[kaiasgram]

I just want to say how sorry I am for the suffering you're going through. I can't begin to speculate about what's going on, perhaps some of the more experienced forum folks will have some thoughts. I also am not familiar with reading Encore reports, but it looks like you've posted just the oximetry report -- do you have data output from your CPAP machine for that night? I wonder if the desaturations correspond to your apnea events. You said that your AHI was 2.7, which is a per hour average -- that would mean if you were in bed for 7.3 hours (per your report data), you actually had close to 19 or so events (experts, please correct me if I'm off-track here). Is that enough to be giving you such bad headaches? None of us could possibly know and of course you have a complicated medical history as well that could be relevant to the headaches. Don't give up the fight for your health and well-being, see the doctors and keep seeing them until you get some relief. Best wishes.

[Julie]

I would want to see a neurologist before an ENT, to address the headaches (could be a neck problem) and post-stroke issues, plus he'd also be likely to have some idea about your ENT status in any case.

[HoseCrusher]

While your pulse ox data does show a spike, overall it looks good. You would have to zoom in on the spike area to see if it is an artifact or something else.

Remember that 1 spike doesn't make a trend.

You will have to look elsewhere for what is causing your pain. O2 levels look pretty good.

[3dogstew]

You know I was thinking imy problem was Cpap related because the headaches are so bad when I use my machine. If I don't use the machine I still have a headache in the a.m. but not severe. I just purchased the pulse oximeter so I don't have much data related to spiking. I do know that when I am not on cpap my oxygen levels are worse. I know I do have central apneas possibly related to altitude. Not sure what problem the stroke caused.

I was hoping for some simple answer because I haven't been impressed with the sleep Dr and the knowledge base of the staff performing the sleep studies. My ENT is a good surgeon but not that great at sleep related problems. I think I will push for a visit to a good neurologist first if my ENT goes down the path of another sleep study.

[Lizistired]

I would want to see a neurologist before an ENT, to address the headaches (could be a neck problem) and post-stroke issues, plus he'd also be likely to have some idea about your ENT status in any case.

Ditto!!
Headaches are nothing to play with, especially with a stroke history!

[3dogstew]

Ditto, Ditto!
I think my Mother had undiagnosed sleep apnea she had multiple strokes and a very loud snorer. I wish more Doctors would make that connection and test for sleep apnea. They didn't make that connection with me either.

[BasementDwellingGeek]

I had terrible headaches the first few mornings after starting CPAP. I cranked the humidifier up a notch every night until they stopped.