Do I really have sleep apnea?

I would like some opinions on how to proceed in my treatment.

I've never been a morning person or been considered a high energy person. I just figured my general fatigue was a function of aging, raising kids and our modern stressful lifestyle. In October of 2005 I started to feel worse, waking up tired, daytime sleepiness and much lower energy levels. I gave up exercise in Dec. and Jan. My wife said I had funny breathing noises at night. They were not gasping noises that I see in the apnea video. In any case she suggested I look into this.

In Jan. I took a sleep study in which I got just about zero actual sleep (does this affect the results?). Based on that test I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea. They said that I had a few apnea episodes and that with CPAP ( the 2nd half of the test ) I had none. The only hard number they gave me was a 89% oxygen level. Is 89% bad?

I was given a machine about 7 weeks ago and having been using most nights. It is a simple machine and it tells me I get 4+ hours about 50% of the nights. The machine is a Remstar plus set to "8". I honestly can't say I feel any better since i started my treatment. The same lack of energy. How should I proceed?

1) Get another study to confirm the original diagnosis.
2) Move on to testing for other conditions like for chronic fatigue ...
3) Stay with the current treatment longer.
4) ???

Vitals:
42 yr old Male
172lb 5' 6"
Last physical was clean, blood sugar, CBC, thyroid normal.
Exercise: I force myself to the Gym 2 -3 times a week no matter how tired I feel
Gear: Remstar Plus with integrated humidifier, ComfortGel Mask.

Thanks to all.

Sometimes it's hard accept the diagnosis of sleep apnea, especially when we discover what the treatment is like.......but all problems can be overcome. It really sounds like you have it, all right......The problem with a sleep test where you sleep very little, is that there is also very little data. You have to sleep to have a test. Another sleep test might be the way to go, but definitly DON'T give up on your treatment..........for some folks results come more gradually......but once they come........! You'll know when you get there how good it feels to be alive......You might want to read some of the older 'feeling good' sort of posts on that.........best yet, read everything you can......there's a wealth of information here.......Gidgie

[quote="TwinsDad"]

In October of 2005 I started to feel worse, waking up tired, daytime sleepiness and much lower energy levels.

My wife said I had funny breathing noises at night.

Based on that test I was diagnosed with mild sleep apnea.

They said that I had a few apnea episodes and that with CPAP ( the 2nd half of the test ) I had none.

The only hard number they gave me was a 89% oxygen level. Is 89% bad?

I get 4+ hours about 50% of the nights. The machine is a Remstar plus set to "8".

I honestly can't say I feel any better since i started my treatment. The same lack of energy. How should I proceed?

4) ???

TwinsDad wrote:How should I proceed?

1) Get another study to confirm the original diagnosis.
2) Move on to testing for other conditions like for chronic fatigue ...
3) Stay with the current treatment longer.
4) ???

Dear TwinsDad,

There are a couple of other possibilities I can think of that you left off your list.
- Increase/decrease pressure in your current machine until you feel better
- Swap your current machine for an APAP, and get software to monitor results

Only you can decide which is best for you, but you know already that you have apnea, so you probably should consider optimizing your apnea treatment first. The thing you may not have realized yet is that only about 50% of apnea sufferers continue with xPAP treatment, so what the docs are doing isn't working very well. I'd guess that the odds of a second sleep study improving things for you isn't very good. But don't be discouraged yet. Lots of folks have come here very discouraged, but manage to turn things around quickly.

How you do that may depend on what insurance covers for you, if cost is the major consideration for you. If not, then you have many more options.

Since you don't seem to think you were titrated properly, an APAP would be the quickest way to accomplish a new titration. But don't think that you really need an APAP to accomplish a new titration yourself, at least according to one reputable article which folks here have posted links to in the past. What you'd have to do though is change the pressure gradually until the therapy works better - at least according to the article.

Also, if you get a different machine along with monitoring software, you'll be able to very quickly optimize your apnea treatment. If you still feel bad after optimizing your apnea treatment, then you and your physician will be better able to pursue any other possible problems you might have.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Bill

Twinsdad,
If the treatment is working, I would expect you to be happy to be getting a lot more time on the machine. I went from waking up habitually 4-5 times a night to go pee and staying up at 4:30 to 5:00 every morning to being happy to be in bed in the rig until 6:30 and time to go to work. You didn't mention awakening a lot still (apnea are still happening)or having a dry mouth(treatment air is leaking out your mouth), but if you are not getting lots more rest something isn't working right.

I too felt like I slept zero time in the titration study, but I knew better because the data said I slept, I just felt like it took forever to go to sleep etc.

If you can clarify what you are experiencing, perhaps we can give more/better advice.

Hang in there,

TerryB

Thank you for all the thoughtful replies.

Just to clarify, my doubts on the diagnosis revolve around the rather sudden onset of symptoms last Oct. (is that normal?) and the validity of the (sleepless) sleep test.

Medically speaking I guess the next step is to discuss in more details the results of my first test with the ENT and see if another one is warranted. Probably discuss if I can get more advanced hardware too.


In terms of treatment my general experience is that it takes me longer to fall asleep with the mask on but generally I eventually do. I wake up a few times in the middle of the night, sometimes for no apparent reason and sometimes because by throat is very dry ( a side affect of CPAP I am told ). During 1 of these wake up events I semi consciously will take the mask off and go back to sleep. The machine reports how many nights I get 4+ hours and this is the reason I only get about 50% nights over 4 hours. I avg about 7 hours sack time a night.

I do have sinus issues and suffer from a persistent mildly stuff nose ( gets worse when I have a cold, prone to sinusitis.) I use Ocean nasal spray ever y night to help clear that out a bit. I've done that even prior to going on CPAP. Would a full face mask help here??

The air noise, I think from the exhaust port, does bug me from time to time. The air pressure ( set at 8 ) does not really bother me unless I try to talk or breathe through my mouth. How do you change the pressure on my machine? The instructions only say it should be done at the office.

The mask is bulkier then I would like but I don't have a big airleak problem. How often do you clean these things?

Do you folks have any other thoughts/ideas?

Thanks,
Robert

_________________

CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): CPAP, clean