Maybe Cured?? Maybe Not Quite.

I was diagnosed with OSA a few years ago and had good success with CPAP therapy. Recently, I started waking up with headaches. Since I had lost a decent amount of weight I headed to the sleep center and got them to perform another sleep study with the thought that I needed to change my settings. The results indicated that I could discontinue CPAP therapy.

I've been off of CPAP for a couple weeks and some of my old OSA symptoms are showing up. Several mornings, I woke up with a minor headache, a migraine like headache one morning and today I woke up exhausted, short-tempered, etc. etc.

The doctor is completely useless! He said "a lot of things can cause headaches other than OSA" and when I had asked him if using CPAP without actually needing it could have caused my headaches he said "yeah...I GUESS if you were using it and didn't need it that could cause a headache".

So I thought I would get a Zeo to see what's going on, but then I found it they went out of business.

Anybody have any thoughts/suggestions to figure out what's going on?
Can you exhibit OSA some days and not others?
Does it make sense to get an oximeter to track my levels?
Is there a downside to continuing to use my CPAP machine?
What variables could cause head aches that I can keep track of to make my complaint to (another) doctor a little more specifics.

Any all input is appreciated!

There are lots of things that can cause headaches from food reactions all the way up to brain tumours. He should be ordering blood tests of all sorts including thyroid and B12. If they are like migraines you should see a neurologist to rule out all sorts of scary things.

A full data xpap, apap preferred, and the software to read it are all that is needed to sort out most sleep apnea. At 2 years in you should know this by now.

A over night recording pulse ox and sortware is also a second tool that's useful.

DeNile is your worst enemy. Jim

I download my data to sleepy head, but nothing looks out of whack (as far as I can tell).

Since he doesn't think I need CPAP, my guess is that it's a slim chance of me upgrading to an auto machine.

I think I need to start keeping some logs to see if I can pick up any trends. I'm also going to investigate oximeters.

Wannagoodnitesleep wrote:I download my data to sleepy head, but nothing looks out of whack (as far as I can tell).

Since he doesn't think I need CPAP, my guess is that it's a slim chance of me upgrading to an auto machine.

I think I need to start keeping some logs to see if I can pick up any trends. I'm also going to investigate oximeters.

You're right, it would be hard to get an APAP machine under the circumstances. It wasn't right to suggest you're in denial. Or that you "should know" to get an APAP to figure out the answer to your question -- in fact, if you're using the machine you're getting some treatment, so that wouldn't give you a definitive answer.

By any chance do you have a copy of your report from this recent sleep study? It would be interesting to see the results and on what basis the doc is saying you no longer need CPAP. For example, did you have zero apnea events during the sleep study, or did you just have less than 5/hour? What about oxygen desaturations? RERAs? I don't know for sure the answer to the question about whether a person with apnea could happen to have an apnea-free night, but I can imagine if you were mild in the first place, perhaps you did just have a really good night with no or very few apnea events but you still do have sleep apnea.

You have an interesting situation. I hope you'll stick around and let us know what happens. And I hope the headaches get sorted out soon.

Let me guess; you lost a bunch of weight, the doctor predicted that would cure your apnea,
and the doctor has to be right even if it harms the patient.
Remember, PSG's are sometimes WRONG! Trust your instinct, change doctors, and take care of yourself.

chunkyfrog wrote:Let me guess; you lost a bunch of weight, the doctor predicted that would cure your apnea,
and the doctor has to be right even if it harms the patient.
Remember, PSG's are sometimes WRONG! Trust your instinct, change doctors, and take care of yourself.

+1

Use the CPAP and see if your symptoms go away.

You could also try gradually lowering your pressure and seeing what happens to your symptoms and data. If apneas start showing up, you probably still need CPAP.

It's very possible that apnea might not show up in one night in a strange lab, with wires all over your body, in a strange bed, etc.

What position did you sleep in a) in the lab, b) at home? That really can make a big difference!

You for sure have the PR S1 60 series Pro ..model 460??
Unless they have made some major changes it has limited APAP capabilities.
I think 30 nights at APAP...and unless Respironics changes things...the 30 days can be reset 5 times.

Go here and request the clinical/provider manual for your machine....be sure to be specific with model name.
Your various options included limited APAP will be explained.

Going without caffeine in the morning can cause headaches and exhaustion in those habituated to it.