Do I still have sleep apnea?

I had double jaw surgery in July, moved forward 10mm plus tongue advacement. The Sleep drs here are booking in to Jan and that's not counting the sleep lab. I have a Resmed Aircurve S10 Vauto and an S9 Lumis TX. The one night I ran pulse ox without pap, didn't see anything concerning.

I'm just now getting back to using cpap because it was contraindicated right after surgery and I couldn't tolerate it until the facial pain and swelling went down. I have thought about just putting the Vauto into Vauto mode, using the defaults, and see if it sees any events. The only difference I can tell from when I don't use cpap is sometimes my throat hurts when I wake up. I'm still sleeping in a recliner just like I was post OP.

I've been on cpap 11 years and I just want off. I've had a WatchPat at home study before and it's useless. I couldn't sleep because the chest strap is uncomfortable and it said I slept but had 'no sleep apnea'. This was before I had my surgery about a year ago. If you don't fall asleep, technically you have no sleep apnea! I sat there playing final fantasy on switch and this 'amazing technology' said I was asleep.

The machine monitors usage..not necessarily sleep. If you are wearing the mask with the machine running, it's counting. It monitors air flow. It can't tell if you are asleep or not.

You probably do still have apnea.
There is no "cure" for apnea, which us why your surgery did not have a warranty.
The only guarantee is that your surgeon made a pile of money,
and you endured a lot of pain.

sephiro499 wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 13, 2021 8:45 pm

I have thought about just putting the Vauto into Vauto mode, using the defaults, and see if it sees any events.

This is about your only option and it may or may not give you the clear cut answers you want because there is therapy value even at minimum default pressures.

Ideally the only for sure way to know if your surgery fixed your OSA issues is with a sleep study but if you can't do one...

I would suggest Auto mode....
Minimum EPAP...4
PS ...1
Max IPAP 20
and see what happens.

chunkyfrog wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 14, 2021 7:33 am

You probably do still have apnea.
There is no "cure" for apnea, which us why your surgery did not have a warranty.
The only guarantee is that your surgeon made a pile of money,
and you endured a lot of pain.

Thankfully I didn't get the surgery only for sleep apnea. My open bite is now resolved. Meaning my front teeth now touch. W the uneven teeth wear I had to get it done.

You can do the watch pat without the chest strap but it doesn't measure respiratory effort without that strap. If you have complex apnea it may not capture that data. But if it was a matter of "just" severe OSA, you should be able to get useful data from the Watch Pat.

Thank goodness your bite has been improved.
Sorry if you expected the surgery to do more than was possible.
OSA is usually due to irregular structures not easily reachable during surgery.
Maybe someday . . .
I'd like to see the diagnostic beds on Star Trek.