Passing Out

[Beckyboo222]

Hi, I haven't been with you for a while. I was diagnosed with apnea last August and put on Cpap. My doctor could not find the letter from the person who read my test, so he told me we'd put the machine on 10 and that will be okay. I made out quite well until May. Mid May my husband found me passed out in bed in the AM. He held me up for about 10 minutes and I came to. We visited our doctor who checked me out and found nothing wrong. A month ago I woke him, tore my mask off and promptly passed out. It took longer this time for me to regain consciousness and of course this is terrifying for both of us since I am a very healthy person who has never even felt dizzy. He called 911 and they took me to the hospital, where they did numerous heart and brain tests all of which were fine and sent me home shortly after 24 hours saying it is probably the apnea. Two weeks later, I had a couple of other "spells", but did not pass out. I went to my family doctor who sent me immediately to a cardiologist who admitted me to a bigger hospital and did every heart test including a heart cath and called in pulmonary and a neurologist who ordered brain CT scan and MRI and MRA and of course many cardiograms and much blood work and everything was perfect. After 6 days I was discharged and will have a new sleep study tomorrow night. I am getting nervous about this as I had 3 more incidences on the weekend when sleeping, two with mask at night and one time riding sitting up in the car with my husband driving. I did not pass out but felt very very strange. Any ideas where to go from here. The docs don't have any ideas. Thanks much.

[Muse-Inc]

Please register AND complete your equipment profile (xPAP, mask, humidifier) so people have some idea of what you are using. Do you have any idea what your oxygen levels are?

[Beckyboo222]

I registered a year ago and am afraid I do not know how to do the profile, but my Cpap is an Escape II, oxygen levels in hospital with and without Cpap were 96 to 99. I usually use a Fisher Paykel 407 mask as I went back to it after passing out. I also used the Swift Lt and was trying a Respironics comfort gel when I had my problems. Thanks for asking.

[Muse-Inc]

The Sleep Study should provide some data about what is going on when you sleep..that's gotta help. It's one step at a time, rule out this, rule out that, eventually a pattern emerges.

[rubymom]

Becky, I don't have any answers, but just want to acknowledge how scary this must be for you and your husband. And I hope that sleep study helps the doctors get to the bottom of what is going so it can be fixed.

Good luck!

[Julie]

Is it possible you are inadvertently blocking (or allowing to be blocked) the CO2 vent hole on the mask or hose attachment? That could definitely knock you out if it were prolonged. You must arrange things to not let that happen. And BTW, tell your husband holding you up if you're out is not the way to go - keeping your head lower than your body (or at least heart) is. Have you never been dizzy in your life and had someone tell you to get your head down between your knees? It's standard practice. If you're in bed, your feet should be raised on pillows.

[Beckyboo222]

Dear Muse-Inc, Rubymom,and Julie,

Thanks so much for your responses and for your encouragement. After all the time in the hospitals and all the testing, I was a bit discouraged that nothing was found, but you are right that one step at a time hopefully will do the trick. I didn't think that a new Cpap test would find anything since I never had anything like this even before I used it, but maybe it will. Of course my darling husband did not know what to do and when he raised me the first time and I quickly regained consciousness, he tried the second time. I was having some difficulty breathing he said and I knew I was when I came too and asked for my albuteral inhaler. I have a little asthma, but I don't even need medication any more except if I am exposed to a lot of fragrances which I stay away from if possible. It was surprising to me that when I asked the doctors I saw in the hospital from each discipline that they each told me "it is hard to tell since we don't know what caused the passing out. " Thanks much for all your ideas. I appreciated each suggestion.

[katcw]

[quote:] My doctor could not find the letter from the person who read my test, so he told me we'd put the machine on 10 and that will be okay [endquote]

I find this most troubling. I'm glad you are getting a new sleep study -- are you getting a new doctor as well?

[mdbarthe]

Just out of curiosity, do you take a lot of aspirin? If so, has anyone looked at your blood to see how much is in your system. This problem sounds very, very similar to one a gentleman I know had several years ago. All the tests in the world turned up nothing. He finally self-diagnosed (imagine that) when he read a Reader's Digest article that described the effects from those who take heavy dosages of asprin products for our arthritis, aches, pains, etc. An accumulation of too much in the blood stream causes people to pass out randomly, but also lowers their oxygen levels causing them to black out.

He got off the aspirin and within one week his oxygen levels had returned to normal, he felt fine and has had no further problems.

[Beckyboo222]

I agree that the doctor's comment was very disturbing and to me also. However, I unfortunately have found the same lack of interest with the physician and the provider of equipment. Yes, the cardiologist felt as you do and ordered a different doctor to followup on the CPap study. Thanks

To the other gentleman who wrote about aspirin. I do take one 325mg aspirin a day is all and many blood tests were taken of course and all came back "perfect" to quote the cardiologist. I do take a few vitamins and I believe I will try deleting one of those at a time as well. My chol was even unbelievably low for me. I take .5 mg of lipitor which is the only other med I take regularly, but it never lowered that much. 147 chol, 60 HDL, 70 LDL and 70 trig. A year ago, I began 1000 mg of fish oil and also made a concerted effort to add fibre and use a cereal that gives me 8 grams of fibre which I believe is the reason for the reduction in my chol. By the way I am a 73 year old lady who is happy and enjoys life and always very healthy. Thanks for the info about the man who found his problem. I appreciate all thoughts or ideas as doctors are baffled. It really is a scary thing when it happens. I will let you all know if the sleep study shows anything new.

[sleepguy2009]

That's the problem with some Primary Care Physicians - they ask you to be in a certain pressure without properly testing you for it. This is not good. He should have referred you immediately to a Sleep Specialist - who would either recommend you for a CPAP titration study or would prescribe an auto titrating CPAP machine which would eventually determine your pressure. Your condition of passing out might have been caused by either CO2 retention and/or an extended apneic event caused by too low CPAP pressure.

[Muse-Inc]

Beckyboo222, this is Wednesday night and I hope you are sleeping well in the study. With luck, they will determine if REM onset issues might be causing these very distressing episodes. Hopefully, this is a split study with titration for the pressure needed to stent open your airway to prevent apneaic events when you sleep. I've got my fingers crossed that they uncover some answers for you.

[wrenn]

I don't really have anything to add but wanted to book mark this thread because I am curious and also worried for you.

I too hope the sleep study helps give you some answers and that there is follow up if it is not related to sleep. I can't imagine having that worry. All the best.

[SleepyT]

beckyboo222,
could it be your blood pressure is going so low it causes you to pass out? seems like it would be hard to pick up because by the time you're in the doctor's office...it has returned to normal. i've seen this happen to people before. just a thought.

sleepyt

[Beckyboo222]

Gosh, you folks surely are nice to be concerned and try to help us all with your suggestions etc. Sleep study went well and I actually slept from 1 to 4:30 (had a very patient tech who made me much more relaxed also). Thanks Muse-Inc, your good wishes brought me good luck. Sleeping that much in a study is a real achievement for me. She said that I did best with the LTSwift and pressure set at 9. She did not like the results with the Fisher Paykel 407. However when the clinician came in, she interpreted it as 10, but not much difference. I will not see a doctor for followup for a couple of weeks to learn more I hope. I had found myself that 9 worked best with no little puffs of air coming from my mouth only occasionally. My husband has watched me also and says I do not mouth breathe, but I do know that occasionally I do give little puffs and wake myself up. I will get a chinstrap. I have EPR on my machine, but was told by both a sleep specialist in FL and my DME that there was no need to use that. Since I am married to a ME who designs farm machinery for his lifetime, I know that companies don't add things that people don't either need or want because it adds to the cost. In spite of the advice of the doctor and DME, I had set the EPR at one and I just realized today that about 2 months ago, I decided I should really be following their advice regardless of what I thought and turned the EPR off. I don't know if that had any effect, but I realize that that was just before I began passing out. I asked the tech at the study if their machine used this method and she told me that it is set at 3 so she requested the DME to set mine at 3 so I will see if that affects my situation in any way. It seemed to me that my breathing was easier last night on their machine. It is interesting that the doctor who ordered the Cpap for me could not find the paper from the testing and said just put it on 10, and it turned out to be correct. Wanted to tell you, Sleepyguy that that was a pulmonary specialist who specializes in Apnea. Quite interesting, right? He was not just my primary care physician and I had to see him in order to be permitted a sleep study originally. Thanks, Wrenn, for your interest and concern. I was quite worried and nervous to be away from my darling husband for the testing, but everyones' good wishes carried me through and I didn't play any tricks. I suppose it would have been a good time, but I have so much faith in him even though he is not medically trained. SleepyT, I have no low blood pressure, but I surely love your little cat picture. It is adorable --- really makes me smile. I also think I could have had some CO2 retention and am being especially careful. Thanks much for all your help and I am not as frightened to go to sleep after the test and feel that perhaps the EPR will help a bit. I still feel there must be a reason for it being available on the machine. Sweet dreams!