Retesting for Sleep Apnea

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
mdterpfan88
Posts: 1
Joined: Tue Oct 19, 2004 7:58 am

Retesting for Sleep Apnea

Post by mdterpfan88 » Tue Oct 19, 2004 8:10 am

Hello all -

I was wondering how often everyone gets retested for sleep apnea. Sometimes I feel I need to have my machine recalibrated but I don't want to do it until I have been retested. I have had sleep apnea for over 7 1/2 years now and have been retested twice. Is that too often or not often enough? Please share your feelings on this.

Thanks.

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rested gal
Posts: 12883
Joined: Thu Sep 09, 2004 10:14 pm
Location: Tennessee

retesting

Post by rested gal » Tue Oct 19, 2004 10:44 am

I'd say "how you feel" would be your best indication of whether you need re-testing or not. Two retests in seven years doesn't sound bad to me (I'm not a doctor). If you don't feel as good now as you have felt previously on your machine, I think you should talk to your doctor. Ask him what he thinks about having you retested.

Personally, I'm a big believer in using an autopap, as opposed to using a straight cpap. With an autopap (sometimes called an auto-titrating cpap) a high and a low pressure are set instead of just one pressure. If your pressure needs change over time and still fall within that range, the autopap will deliver the pressure you need when you need it, and will drop back down to a more comfortable lower pressure when you don't need a single high pressure going all the time. With a range of pressure prescribed, you don't have to worry so much about, "Is my prescribed pressure right for me?" The autopap will be constantly reading your breathing and automatically selecting the "right" pressure for you at any given time, throughout the night and (ideally) for many years. It's also possible to buy software to use with an autopap, to monitor your nightly data on your own computer.

All that said - back to your present machine. If I had any doubts at all about whether my machine were really delivering my prescribed presure, I'd either buy a manometer to check the pressure myself, or take it in to a DME (home health care provider) to have the pressure checked. I wouldn't wait for another sleep study before having the calibration of the machine checked out. You didn't say if you had been using that same machine all these years - if so, then all the more reason to have the pressure checked on it by now.