New here and a little depressed about diagnosis. Doctor did not explain very well....

[flcpap17]

Good morning,

By way of background, I am a 26 year old male, 6’2 197 lbs. Doctor sent me to get a sleep test after a while of high blood pressure despite being an avid runner with a BMI around 25. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea with results on home sleep test of:
AHI: 6
RDI: 9
Mean SpO2: 95.6%
Minimum SPO2: 87.0%
Sleep Eff: 87.3%
% REM: 4.2%

Two nights ago was my first time using my CPAP machine (Phillips Dreamstation) with mask (Dreamware full face mask). I woke up that morning feeling great, up at 5:30am (slept for 7. hours. The machine said my 90% pressure was 5.5 with my average at 4.5. My AHI was 3.3. I am a groomsman in a wedding and did a little bit of drinking, my results last night were 90% pressure of 7.7 with average at 5.5 and AHI of 5.3. I am not sure what this all means. Does my pressure need to go up? Is my sleep apnea severe? My doctor and the CPAP company did a poor job of explaining this to me.

Thanks in advance!

[jimbud]

BMI does not necessarily have anything to do with Apnea.

Obstructive sleep apnea is classified by severity:

Severe obstructive sleep apnea means that your AHI is greater than 30 (more than 30 episodes per hour)
Moderate obstructive sleep apnea means that your AHI is between 15 and 30.
Mild obstructive sleep apnea means that your AHI is between 5 and 15.

Drinking exacerbates apnea symptoms.

Read the top two ANNOUNCEMENTS on the home page.

Come back and ask questions.

You probably will need more pressure,but no one on here wants to guess.

Get Oscar and post some charts.

Help is at hand.

JPB

[chunkyfrog]

My life would have been so different if I had been diagnosed when I was your age . . .
Decades of not feeling "up to" living my life to the fullest.
I know I had apnea for most of my life.
I know it made me fat, and contributed to so many medical disorders.
Your future is so bright, you might need sunglasses.
Celebrate!

[palerider]

Does my pressure need to go up?

Probably, post some data: http://cpaptalk.com/wiki/index.php/Oscar:organize

Is my sleep apnea severe?

No, but it's bad enough to raise your blood pressure and cause poor sleep. it's like having someone sitting by your bed and poking you with a sharp stick, on average, every 6 minutes or so.

My doctor and the CPAP company did a poor job of explaining this to me.

Nothing new here.

If they were *competent* this forum would have no reason to exist.

[Miss Emerita]

I just wanted to add my welcome. It sounds like you're off to a great start! The people here can definitely help you fine-tune your settings once you can post a Daily View chart from Oscar.

You'll need access to a laptop or desktop. (Oscar doesn't work on phones or pads.) You'll need an SD card in your machine. And you'll need a way to read the SD card -- either via a slot in the computer or an SD card reader (inexpensive) that you can plug into a USB port. Sound do-able?

I get why you say the diagnosis depressed you a little. It's like learning you need glasses. You realize some body function you took for granted needs help, and will continue to need help going forward. But chunkyfrog makes a great point: you're lucky to be treating the apnea now, rather than years from now, when high blood pressure and chronically messed up sleep architecture have started to take their toll. With time, you will probably find CPAP treatment no more remarkable than wearing glasses or contacts. It'll just be part of your routine.

[iggystar71]

With time, you will probably find CPAP treatment no more remarkable than wearing glasses or contacts. It'll just be part of your routine.

A very encouraging POV for this newbie!!

[cyeh01]

Just wanted to chime in and mention that alcohol is a disruptor to sleep. When I drink, I get an even stuffier nose than normal and worse sleep-wake transitions and generally worse sleep structure than normal. That being said, for me at least missing more REM sleep reduces my CA (clear airway) events and I wake up feeling "better" than usual. While I don't have many OA events (obstructive apnea), my gut tells me that alcohol would probably increase OA events simply with the increase in deeper sleep. Research seems to agree.

Severity is relative and how you feel after treatment is IMHO the most important indicator to your situation.

Regardless, you're in good hands here. There are a bunch of seasoned vets that possess a wealth of knowledge. Keep at it!

Good morning,

By way of background, I am a 26 year old male, 6’2 197 lbs. Doctor sent me to get a sleep test after a while of high blood pressure despite being an avid runner with a BMI around 25. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea with results on home sleep test of:
AHI: 6
RDI: 9
Mean SpO2: 95.6%
Minimum SPO2: 87.0%
Sleep Eff: 87.3%
% REM: 4.2%

Two nights ago was my first time using my CPAP machine (Phillips Dreamstation) with mask (Dreamware full face mask). I woke up that morning feeling great, up at 5:30am (slept for 7. hours. The machine said my 90% pressure was 5.5 with my average at 4.5. My AHI was 3.3. I am a groomsman in a wedding and did a little bit of drinking, my results last night were 90% pressure of 7.7 with average at 5.5 and AHI of 5.3. I am not sure what this all means. Does my pressure need to go up? Is my sleep apnea severe? My doctor and the CPAP company did a poor job of explaining this to me.

Thanks in advance!

[braddw25]

I am fairly new to this as well. I started therapy back in January. I can tell you for certain that you have come to the right place. The people here are just fantastic. I can also tell you that the concern, depression, or discomfort with having to do cpap went away for me when after the first month of my therapy I started to feel REALLY good. It takes a while to adjust, but as the awesome folks here will tell you, the best thing about cpap therapy is that it ALWAYS works. There are tweaks that need to be made here and there, but if you stick with it you will have success.

Just some background on my situation which was worse than yours is. I am 52 years old and was never diagnosed until late last year. I went for sleep studies 3 different times, but could not be properly diagnosed because I couldn't fall asleep in that setting. I finally found an online sleep apnea clinic that does home sleep studies. That was the ticket for me. Just for comparison's sake, my AHI was 80 when I started. I do not know how long I had sleep apnea before I was diagnosed, but I do know that cpap even before my machine was tweaked made me feel MUCH better. At the beginning I was very doubtful that I would ever get used to sleeping without my mask on. 9 months later, not only has it become routine, but I now have trouble falling asleep without it.

My AHI is now nearly always below 1 and for the past month it has been below .5 more often than not. I'm still making tweaks here and there to eliminate some snores which are not apneas but I still want to reduce the number of those events.

If you take the time to get OSCAR up and running the extremely smart people here will be able to work wonders for you in getting your machine settings where you need them to be.

The bottom line for me is that I feel 20 years younger. My blood pressure this morning was 116 over 63 and that is without BP medication. The benefits of sticking with CPAP therapy are undeniable. Good luck and best wishes as you continue yours.

[palerider]

With time, you will probably find CPAP treatment no more remarkable than wearing glasses or contacts. It'll just be part of your routine.

A very encouraging POV for this newbie!!

Miss Em makes a very good point. I've often likened the use of CPAP to the use of glasses... put on your glasses, and you can see, put on your CPAP and you can breathe... neither of them make the condition better, they're not really therapy, they're just a crutch so you can do what you need to do. Take off your glasses, and your vision hasn't 'healed'. take off the CPAP and your apnea hasn't gone away...

But, like glasses, the CPAP just becomes part of your daily activities, get ready for bed, slip on the mask, go to sleep, it's really no big deal