Oxygen Desat and surgery

It has been 6 days since I returned my machine to the Doc/DME office. Doc's biller hasn't yet initiated a take back on their insurance claim, though I have checked daily with her and with my insurance. My insurance tells me it may take from 5-14 days to reverse the claim, then I still have to wait for appt. with new DME.

I am having surgery in 19 days and my oxy desaturation was 57% during 2 REMs.

It occurs to me that I have my son's unused Bi-pap, masks, hose etc. Thanks to the board I have found the site for the clinician's manual, tho' as a total newbie, I would be anxious to play with it to set it up for me at this time.

Am I over-thinking this? Would having ANY Cpap usage in the ~2.5 weeks prior to surgery afford me any marked and significant benefit as regards surgery? There'll be intubation during, but along the lines of strengthening myself as best as I can prior? I'm not normally an anxious type, but currently I am.

OTOH, I've lived this long ignorant of my desaturations, and have had a few surgeries, and I'm still here.

Anytime you can go into a surgery in better health that's going to be a plus.
Will using your son's machine make a huge difference or improvement...that's really an unknown but for sure it won't hurt and I would do it.
Not having the desats during the night for 2 to 3 weeks prior to the surgery means not stressing the heart and other organs and not having so much stress hormones flooding your blood stream....it's gotta give you a better head start on things.

If you need help coming up with suitable settings or using the machine let me know...I am familiar with BiPaps which I think is what you said he has.

Edit: If you can get me the model number (if it is a Respironics BiPap) it would help me to know what settings are available on the machine....model number is a 3 digit number on the bottom of the blower and it might have DS, REF or P in front or behind the 3 digits.

Hi Pugsy,

Again you're right. I'm not looking for a guarantee of improvement, but optimization prior. What you replied makes so much sense.

Here is the info:

On front of machine: Philips Respironics, Bi-Pap Pro, Bi-Flex, System One.
Underneath: BiPap Pro DOM; REF660P
As far as I know, son's cm was set to 15 but I know no other details since I didn't know back then to get his sleep study graphs/RX like I have in hand for me.

I appreciate it greatly, but please, don't go out of your way right now, I don't want to impose. I will call Biller again today, and if she still has done nothing, I'll call my insurance and try to get them to call Biller to activate reversal on an emergency basis. If nothing is done by tomorrow w/ weekend coming up, then I will get up the gumption to try and work with son's machine.

Ignorance of my desats was bliss, but when ya' know better, ya' do better. Sorry for the cliches. But I don't even have my machine and now I'm gonna play around with a pre-adjusted BI-pap not my own? It's scary.

Rule #1 here - don't apologize for everything! We're here to help and get a kick out of doing it (and sounding important ).

Someone else more knowledgable about your set up will reply soon.

Do you have the clinical/provider manual for this machine?
It is the Respironics PR System One 60 series BiPap Pro...that's what a 660 model is.
You can get it here if you don't have it...request via email
http://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap-p ... tup-manual

It has cpap mode available which is what your returned machine was..or we can fix you up with fixed bilevel which is pretty sweet....I fell in love with it ...took maybe 60 seconds.

What pressure were you prescribed to use?
Exhale relief (EPR on the ResMed)?
Humidity setting?
And does the hose you have with the Bipap have a black coupling on the end that attaches to the humidifier?

Gotta go to the beauty shop but once I know what your prescribed settings were I can offer you some options to try.
I will check back later after I get beautified.

In my personal opinion, YES, a couple of weeks of cpap will help. My headaches went away in about 10 days. My needs for two naps a day were down to 1 nap a day within that 10 days, naps only a couple of times a week after a month. It was no different with physical therapy. In about 10 days to 2 weeks, I had marked improvement doing physical therapy for my leg after a year of pain.

UPDATE:

*Pugsy, you're already beautified, inside and out!!

And Yes!!! I did it! I called my insurance right after posting. Kept bumping my request up and up the line till I finally got someone with authority to do what I wanted. Told her the whole story. I asked if their policy allowed for an over-the-phone reversal process (rather than paperwork being slowly sent back and forth between insurance and biller). Yes! Okay...now...can I have you initiate a conference call between insurance, biller and myself right NOW, please? Yes!

Biller and I were on hold together while insurance rep was readying things. :::awkward:::. Biller had been so rude to me ("I'm doing the job of 3 people here, you'll just have to wait")...Well..I could have been forceful (rude) right back to her but discretion is the better part of valor and I NEEDED her to reverse this. Guess not!! Biller was sooo meek while speaking with the insurance rep who just ran right over her and made her retract it as a billing error. Bet Biller choked on that.

So I will now visit my 2 choices of DMEs, check that they have the AutoSet For Her and get an impression of which one I want to work with. I may have to wait till this afternoon/tomorrow to ensure the changes show up on insurance. That's do-able. I will try to read an online manual for the machine. My first RX was for straight CPAP with 8cm. I pushed for an APAP and Doc re-wrote RX for Auto, with
6-8cm.

Titration study showed 8cm successfully compensated my O2 levels. DME will probably set me up as prescribed by RX of 6-8cm? Any downside? Or if I ask DME to straight CPAP it at 8cm for now, (and I change it later via clinician settings after I've learned)....can they tell me that I then don't NEED an APAP and try to give me a plain CPAP? Just trying to anticipate what I can ask/make them do....forewarned=forearmed.

Thank you all for your replies. Everyone has been so helpful and just awwwwwesome!

:::::feelin' relief, dizzy and lightheaded...quick...where's my oximeter and oxygen tank??::::::Gee...I sooo miss workin' the adversarial arena. It's all suuuch a game..and luckily my insurance was a great teammate!

DanceDiva26 wrote: DME will probably set me up as prescribed by RX of 6-8cm? Any downside?

Not really and downside and for sure not urgent downside and I would go for these settings and worry about maybe adjusting later once a need is proven...if there is even a need to change them. They might work out just fine like they are.

Should you run into trouble and not be able to get your machine today...dig out your son's machine and set it like this.
Mode...Bilevel/bipap or what ever it is called. the other choice is cpap mode so it should be fairly obvious
EPAP....6
IPAP ...8
PS (if given a setting choice will be 2) at the above EPAP and IPAP numbers.
I don't remember exactly which options you will have in BiPap mode.
For BiFlex setting....try 2..it's middle of the road and what I happened to like. It's as good of a place to start as any.