Negative home tests, a dud?

Anyway we'll see what happens this week. Hopefully. I'll be getting my pulse oximeter. That will allow me to see whether I have real sleep apnea or not.

magicis wrote: i don't have thousands of dollars to do sleep study etc etc....can i not just get a auto adjust cpap off craigslist, here in portland, oregon united states, and sleep better? if the thing is auto adjusting, why would i need all of the stats anyway? and so many people hate the cpap, it just seems like a huge risk to borrow the money for sleep studies when i could self adjust? any info?

many people have done this, myself included.

it requires more research on your part, and more learning, and more understanding, basically, you have to be your own doctor, and may very well get treated much better.... you certainly won't have to wait for an appt but it can certainly be done.

I'd recommend a resmed S9 autoset, s9 vpap auto, as10 autoset, respironics auto (560) or bipap auto (760), just be sure to avoid the resmed s9 escape auto, it's terrible for what you want to do.

Thank you for the encouragement and the info....what is a pulse oximeter and what is the reading at night i should be concerned with? would this be a first step in self diagnosis?
onward!

It measures your blood oxygen, and whether or not (and for how long - v. important) it goes below 90% at some time when you're sleeping, and how many times that happens. When you have apneas of any consequence (<10 seconds) it's important to know how your 02 intake is affected (it then affects other body systems), and too many 'de-sats' (oxygen below 90%) of extended times can seriously damage you, so the meter measures those... from a small type you wear overnight on e.g. your finger (some will wake you to alert you to trouble), to much larger and more complex machines in sleep labs.

magicis wrote:what is a pulse oximeter and what is the reading at night i should be concerned with? would this be a first step in self diagnosis?

an oximeter measures how much oxygen is in your blood and reports it as a percentage of how much there could be. you want it in the 90s.

however, regardless of what tiredandscared implies, you cannot diagnose sleep apnea with an oximeter, it will neither confirm, nor deny your having OSA. (kind of like the govt and area 51 for years).

all it can do is say "you do/don't have a problem with getting enough oxygen" you can have enough OSA to keep you from getting restful sleep, and still not have significant oxygen desaturations, AND you can have oxygen desats without OSA. it's NOT conclusive. it does supply additional data. but that's all.

If you got an oximeter, and had desaturations and you've been told you stop breathing, then you can use the oximeter after getting a cpap to verify that you now don't have desats.

magicis wrote:Thank you for the encouragement and the info....what is a pulse oximeter and what is the reading at night i should be concerned with? would this be a first step in self diagnosis?
onward!

It could be a first step in self diagnosing but there is a little catch to it....not everyone will have significant oxygen level drops (we call them desaturations...desats) with their sleep apnea events.
So if you used an overnight recording pulse oximeter and saw significant desats then you would pretty much have a clear cut answer but if you didn't have any desats that doesn't necessarily mean that sleep apnea isn't going on.
I have a friend with severe OSA per an in lab sleep study with 60 plus apnea events per hour...and her oxygen levels didn't drop significantly. I saw the report....her baseline was 97% and her oxygen never dropped below 93%.

A pulse oximeter is one of those little things they clip on your finger at the doctor's office...checks pulse and oxygen level. A recording pulse oximeter goes one step further in that it will record all night instead of just doing the spot check thing like you get at the doctor's office. They aren't horribly expensive depending on how fancy you want to get...somewhere between $50 and $100 will get you a good one.

So it might answer your question "do I have sleep apnea" and it might not give a clear cut answer.
So I am on the fence as to whether I would recommend that as a diagnostic tool without anything else because I know that some people can still have sleep apnea and not have big bad desats.

It is cheaper than a cpap/apap machine though....but if it shows desats you still need cpap/apap machine and if it doesn't show desats...well it just means maybe you don't need cpap/apap.
I lean towards just getting a machine that will auto adjust the pressures if it senses a need and if it does...you have an answer because the machine won't do anything if it doesn't think it has a reason.
Besides there's more to sleep apnea and airway collapses than oxygen level drops...there's having really crappy sleep quality due to arousals or airway collapses.

If you want to just get a machine...I know a forum member with a PR System One 60 Series (model 560) that will give you the data that is needed and auto adjust...for around $350 with less than 100 hours on it.
That's blower, humidifier, travel case, etc.

Also, don't forget that you also need a mask and those require RX unless you buy in parts or know someone who maybe can help. There are ways around the RX rule....
Should you elect to go that way send me a private message as I might have a mask that you can have for cost of postage.

Magicis. Do a home study if you can. Its much cheaper than a
polysomnography. A good home study will include ecg ( monitors brain activity, so ask for it if you call around). That will give you a good idea. Alternatively just buy a cpap.

thank you everyone that is helping to inform me. i am still gathering info here about how to self diagnosis/treat. As i look on craigslist, i am overwhelmed with what i do not know.

1)will a cpap machine measure dsats?
and if i have never had a sleep study,
2) what kind of machine should i buy? big question huh....
3) how will i know how to set it....will an auto set remedy my inexperience and lack of knowledge and give me the info i need?
4)and what machine does that...a bpap or apap?
i am really sensitive to sound.
onward!

magicis wrote:thank you everyone that is helping to inform me. i am still gathering info here about how to self diagnosis/treat. As i look on craigslist, i am overwhelmed with what i do not know.

1)will a cpap machine measure dsats?
and if i have never had a sleep study,
2) what kind of machine should i buy? big question huh....
3) how will i know how to set it....will an auto set remedy my inexperience and lack of knowledge and give me the info i need?
4)and what machine does that...a bpap or apap?
i am really sensitive to sound.
onward!

1. no, you need an oximeter
2. an auto, but avoid anything with the word 'escape' on the top
3. a little experimentation and looking at the data in sleepyhead.
4. apap

I think the resmeds are quieter. maybe not much, but quieter.

Alright after many trials and tribulations, I've finally set everything up. Now i just need the serial expansion port to arrive on monday. Then i'll finally have a reliable instrument which will tell me whether I'm screwed or not.

I have a short clip which i think is a trouble spot, any ideas whether this sounds bad?

http://vocaroo.com/i/s1nhRmWFOpKZ

No it won't... you don't diagnose yourself according to some sound machine, even if you have other things going on. What are you using to test for O2 desats?

Julie wrote:No it won't... you don't diagnose yourself according to some sound machine, even if you have other things going on. What are you using to test for O2 desats?

I managed to find a used one of these for a ridicules price: http://www.turnermedical.com/GE_TRUSAT_ ... trusat.htm
For less than 1/3rd of the price. If it turns out I have dangerous desats, I hope I can buy a used CPAP machine here.

I have a number of new and used machines for sale :

http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/hab/5041424863.html

http://chicago.craigslist.org/nwc/hab/5021690127.html


pm if interested

I feel for you brother, I feel for ya