forgot cpap

Sometimes you have to do the best you can without.

Last year, I did a day trip to a city about 3 hours drive from home. I go every month. Down in the morning, home that night. About 6pm, my alternator died. NO way I was getting home that night. My van was towed to a repair shop that was already closed for the night. I had to spend the night in a friend's RV and drive home the next day once my van was fixed.

TASmart wrote:Anybody know anyone who died while wearing a xPAP? I am sure it's happened.

If one sleeps eight hours per night with the CPAP attached, the chances are 1-in-3 that this individual will eventually die with the CPAP engaged (assuming that the possibility of death is spread evenly through the day).

TASmart wrote:The point being that because someone died while not using their CPAP does not mean that they died from not using their CPAP any more than dying while wearing one mean that wearing a CPAP causes death.

The two I knew did not die from not using the CPAP. They each had a fatal heart attack caused by the stress of untreated apneas.

Both were interesting, but tragic, stories. One guy was visiting a friend at his lake house for a day of fishing. He had planned to drive an hour home at the end of the day and thus had not brought his CPAP. After dinner, a storm was raging, and he was encouraged by his fishing buddy to spend the night, rather than drive in the storm.

The fishing buddy's wife said she kept waking during the night hearing him snoring very loudly down the hall. About 4:30 she woke and could no longer here him snoring. She woke her husband and asked him to go check. The poor guy was dead. He was in his early fifties and had not previously been diagnosed with heart disease.

A bit of a wake up call to all of us, but I'm sure many of us are going to find ourselves in a similar situation at some point. What do we do? Take our machine with us whenever we leave home, just in case?

If you are on cpap and they want another sleep study, they want you off the cpap for 3 nights. If this kills you, you should have been under better health care

ajack wrote:If you are on cpap and they want another sleep study, they want you off the cpap for 3 nights. If this kills you, you should have been under better health care

Not in the U.S.! I've had multiple studies since I started using CPAP. No one ever suggested I skip a night. In fact, I have been told on more than one occasion to never skip - not even a nap.

What kind of idiot doctors would want a CPAPer to not use it for a night, much less three nights in a row??

DeepFriedDuck wrote: . . . I have been told on more than one occasion to never skip - not even a nap.

What kind of idiot doctors would want a CPAPer to not use it for a night, much less three nights in a row??

My thought exactly!
Maybe the inspiration for Major Burns on M.A.S.H. ?
I would run like hell if my doctor even suggested such an idiotic idea!

they said it takes 3 days to revert to base breath patterns. coming straight off a cpap gives false data

if you are being titrated in the sleep test, then there would be no need to come off cpap beforehand, that I can think of.

ajack wrote:gives false data

Especially if the patient is dead.

The fact is it is clinically done. Now you can wring your hands in a panic if you want to, because the sky is falling.

The Choker wrote:

ajack wrote:gives false data

Especially if the patient is dead.

ajack wrote:The fact is it is clinically done. Now you can wring your hands in a panic if you want to, because the sky is falling.

We have a tie!

I don't know about a tie, I think it's more 10:1 ..I'm a lone voice in this

ajack wrote:I don't know about a tie, I think it's more 10:1 ..I'm a lone voice in this

Stay strong. You are needed to bury us.

This discussion (i.e. whether to stop cpap prior to a new sleep study) goes way back on the forum

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=30137&st=0&sk=t&sd=a

As recently as April I read posts from two long time members here suggesting that it's necessary to skip cpap for days prior to a sleep study to ensure that results are accurate.

I'd love to know if there is any valid scientific evidence that using CPAP regularly can in fact skew a sleep study as suggested in that old thread I linked to ... interesting.

Arlene1963 wrote:As recently as April I read posts from two long time members here suggesting that it's necessary to skip cpap for days prior to a sleep study to ensure that results are accurate.

I'd love to know if there is any valid scientific evidence that using CPAP regularly can in fact skew a sleep study as suggested in that old thread I linked to ... interesting.

I heard it from a guy who ran a sleep lab. He told me that sometimes for some people there is a residual "hold over effect" from long term cpap use and sometimes that hold over effect can skew the sleep study when done without cpap.
So some docs are opting for taking the "just in case" approach and advising going without cpap for a few days first.
I have never seen any documentation but then I haven't looked. I think it may be another one of those YMMV things about cpap.
When I went without my machine one night (trip and forgot the hose) there wasn't any hold over effect for me or if it was it was sure minimal. I got a real reminder about just how bad things could be without cpap.

The hold over effect might explain why some people sleep without cpap one night and say "I slept just great so I guess I don't need cpap after all"....only to have things fall apart after a week of no cpap.

When it comes to this I think that people should be talking all this over with their doctor and weighing the options and pros and cons of the hold over effect being worth worrying about when doing a follow up sleep study without cpap for some reason.