altitude and cpap? Suppl O2

So 5 weeks ish into my journey of cpap and all appears to be working well.

I spent a night at 8000 feet last week - and forgot my cpap machine - normally my AHI is 12ish - but at altitude it was off scale - I was using a Wesper tracking device.

At 8000feet SpO2 can drop pretty remarkably in 'normal' people to mid 80's until you aclimitize (please correct me if I'm wrong here).

My results are below - I'm due to spend a few weeks at altitude but wondering of I should have all my ducks in a row to get hold of some supplemental O2?

Could do with some some advice here! Obviously I will take my cpap next time as well!

The oxygen saturation nadir during sleep was 78.0. The patient spent 5 h, 50 m with SpO2 < 90%.

Most of these events are obstructive hypopneas with a few apneas here and there. I had a large increase in central apneas in the second half of the night.

Although I'm not sure why high elevation would be associated with *obstructive* hypopneas, O2 levels certainly can be lower due to elevation -- and 8000 feet is very high!

Please talk with your doctor about whether O2 supplementation would be advisable. He or she will be able to answer the question with your whole medical picture in mind.

My daughter lives in Albuquerque, NM. I've visited twice with CPAP and both nights I had really good AHI scores.

The first time we were in an Air B&B at the top of the foothill neighborhoods there which is around 6,700 feet. I definitely noticed shortness of breath, but I didn't feel bad or winded at all. I forgot my oximeter, but my AHI's were really good.

The second time we were near the University and downtown ALBQ at around 5000 feet most of the time, but I didn't do well at all during the day. I felt winded and like I was wearing a cement suit. No Scandia Peak for me.

It really came to a head when we visited Santa Fe, I didn't realize it was a higher elevation (around 7200 in the city) and at one point my medical resident daughter wanted to take me to the ER because I looked and felt so bad. Instead we just left and returned to Albuquerque. I slept most of the ride back and then got in bed with my CPAP for a couple of hours and felt much better after a while. Everyone says they love Santa Fe, but it wasn't a pleasant experience for me (plus it poured rain!). I felt terrible.

My AHI's were good and my spO2 was high 80's most of the time in ALBQ, but down to about 80 - 82 in Santa Fe. I only started to feel better during the day after we had been in NM about 5 days, though. I didn't acclimate until it was almost time to leave. My AHI's were great throughout.

12'ish at lower elevations is NOT a very good treated AHI. Are you working on getting some improvement there? You should definitely talk to your doctor about what you need to do to spend a few weeks at altitude. And, as everyone was telling me, push fluids, because dehydration is definitely a factor with altitude issues.

Not the best time to forget the cpap.