Has anyone needed oxygen to be bled into the CPAP at night?

[Iamhereandnow]

I'm trying to get all the facts in: let me list them to make it Easier for me.

1) got sleep study mid December (17th/19th... Can't remember)

2) unbeknownst to be, SEVERE sleep apnea. Oxygen sats down to 62%, stopped breathing 55 seconds. (I'm not sure if this is the worst)

3) doc wrote script for CPAP that morning. Took 4 days to get one.

4) Philips respironics with heated humidifier. 7-20 min/max settings. Using sleepyhead.

5) data shows no major leaks, AHI under 3 most nights. (So far not over 5)

6) still having plenty of hypopneas, so I bought a pulse ox.

7) pulse ox alarmed last night (first night) with. 68 and 74% reading. I turned it off after that.

put a call into doc to see about follow up appointment (never got study results yet)

9) using F + P simplus full face mask, size small. Have a nasal mask too but hate it.

I'm feeling so/so. A lot of troubleshooting mask fit. Feel like I'm sleeping deeper and initially feel refreshed upon waking but then feel exhausted again and getting little done during the day,

I'm 45 years old, woman, small neck, doesn't snore.

Under what conditions would a doc order oxygen bled into the CPAP at night? I don't necessarily believe the pulse ox, but it did match up with sleepyhead data for hypopneas.

Thanks.

[Goofproof]

Many of us! Even more important though is getting a full data XPAP, and the software to read the data, and optimizing your treatment. With your level of destats (O2), your body will probably like all the O2, to help repair the damage done.

Your doctor has to get the O2 signed off from your ins. Jim

[iamhereandnow]

Thanks, yeah I'm thinking I want some oxygen. Ill keep you all updated on what the nurse says when she calls back.

[Julie]

Hi - I think you're jumping the gun with 02. What you need to do is raise your low (7) pressure to e.g. 10 and see over a couple of nights how your numbers look... I bet you will find that things improve. O2 is not just normally added in because you have a few desats when you first begin Cpap (at a fairly low pressure) unless there are some very different factors. We all have desats on occasion but raising your pressure should help.

[Iamhereandnow]

Just spoke with the nurse. I have an appt. now for Feb 5th for follow up and she is going to ask him this afternoon about my low oxygen sats to see what to do (if anything) about it. She also mentioned he may order another study to look at how I am doing with Cpap and pulse ox, which I said I was more than willing to do.

[Sleeprider]

Take a look at your Sleepyhead data. Use control + to zoom in on the pressure wave form. Look for where apneas and hypopneas are occurring and look for patterns such as them being more prevalent at low pressure or high pressure. Chances are Julie's advise above will clear up the problem...increasing the lower pressure to improve response time of the automatic pressure.

You have a pressure range of 7-20. What is your average and 95% pressure?

[Iamhereandnow]

I have sleepyhead open and my 90% pressure runs in the 8s. Most recent: 8.3, last week: 8.8

If Im reading this right, hypopneas seems to happen at a pressure of 7. Is that what you were saying? I probably need minimum pressure adjusted up?

[Iamhereandnow]

I'm going to adjust my pressure up right now... I mean not a whole lot can happen huffing air.

[Julie]

Let us know tomorrow what happens - this is a rather common occurrence and usually raising the pressure helps.

[Iamhereandnow]

I decided to live dangerously and go up to a min of ten. I played with it and decided to try the nasal mask again with it tonight (had felt like I was suffocating with it before). I also upped the humidity from 3 to 5.

The F+P simplus was leaky anyway at 8, and it was ridiculous at 9 and 10. I wanted to like the nasal mask-- maybe this is the trick.

[Iamhereandnow]

Forgot to say thank you, thank you, thank you! A thousand times thank you!

[Julie]

Hope that humidity doesn't make you congested - it's quite a lot.

[archangle]

Don't get in too much of a hurry. Sometimes your body takes a while to adapt. If you haven't died in the years you developed apnea, you're unlikely to die in the next month or two while you get your apnea under control.

Don't put too much faith in your pulsox results. Sometimes they give bad readings if you move. You might want to post your O2 graphs, especially if you have occasional sharp dips in your O2 levels.

[Iamhereandnow]

Yea, a little congested this morning, but a much better sleep and I actually woke up before my alarm this morning and felt rested. (We'll see how long that lasts)

Will back up humidity back to 3.

The pulse ox I had taped to my finger with the alarm set. I have a mac, and we all have macs and the one I bought is for a PC, thought I thought it could work with sleepyhead and it doesn't. (It is compatible with sleepyhead, but I guess since I have a mac... I'm out of luck).

Sleepyhead isn't pulling off the data this morning-- I'm somewhere around 3+ weeks since starting to use the program. I don't know If I didn't return the SD card all the way or if it has stopped pulling data (I think I read it does this sometimes but I can't remember the solution).

Thanks!

[Sleeprider]

No doubt increasing the minimum pressure helped. You took a pretty large step going from 4.0 to 10 and you may want to experiment with some alternatives. Leave the pressure in place for a while to get a good baseline before making changes, then try to resist the temptation to change more than one thing at a time. Our sleep can change in quality from night to night, and pressure, exhalation pressure relieve, and even humidity can have subtle effects, and you need to see a cause/effect over several days or weeks to get things fine-tuned.

Glad to hear it's working a lot better for you now.