Hello everybody

Hi all, hope this is OK place to post. Im 72, and slim and have issues with memory and sharpness. If I have to get up early to I feel something like the 'jet lag' queasy feeling like after a transatlantic flight. I had a sleep study that said I had mild sleep apnea. Then I had a titration study that was much worse--I'm sure because I was fighting the CPAP. I'm pretty sure I need to do CPAP--but given the possible months of difficult and possibly worse sleep, is 'mild' sleep apnea enough reason to take this on.

Appreciate this forum being here because I think I'm going to need it.

Jrileye

Welcome to the forum.

Sleep apnea severity is measured by the average number of apnea events per hour.
It doesn't take into account severity of oxygen level drops....do you know how low your oxygen levels went to during the initial diagnostic sleep study. There's more to OSA than just AHI to affect the body. Fragmented sleep...stress on the heart and all that.

What was the official AHI that they came up with to give you the mild diagnosis? Was it 6 or was it 14?
Did sleep position make any big difference? Did sleep stage make any difference?

My AHI during my diagnostic study was 12 per hour in non REM sleep but my oxygen levels dropped to 73%....so mild in non REM per the number of events but actually quite severe in terms of what happened to my oxygen levels.
Then I really had a lot of events happen in REM...5 time more...so I got the severe category in REM.
Even without the REM worse OSA....my 12 AHI mild diagnosis and the O2 desats were more than enough for me to need cpap and benefit from it.

Titration study being horrible...mine was too. Let's face it...just hard to sleep with all the new stuff attached to us and in a foreign setting to boot. At home it's not nearly so horrible once you get the mask fitting mastered and get a mask that you are happy with.

Welcome Jrileye! You'll probably have a issues and a boatload full of questions. Ask them. We'll help you thru this.

Sheriff

Thank you for the really useful posts.

On the sleep study , the AHI was 7.3/hour, lowest pulse ox 91%, arousals 28.7 per hour. On the titration study the AHI was 56, arousals 44/hr, pulse ox 99% over 90, 1% 80-90. The CPAP made me feel like I was suffocating a lot of the time. I'm guessing that with right mask, pressures, that part improved a lot.

I think I'm trying to get through my denial--and apprehension about CPAP. My sleep is definitely disordered and I often feel jet lagged.

The last 4-5 years of working as a pediatrician I began to make a lot of mistakes charting. I thought I had ADHD.

You guys help is going to help me a lot.

Jim

Welcome to the forum. Regardless of the severity of your sleep apnea, I recommend you treat it. I was about a year older than you are when I started treatment, and my wife was about your age when she started treatment. We have people of all ages and occupations here and most are willing to offer you any help you may need. Results seen in the sleep labs are often different than what you would have in your own bed. It is difficult to sleep in a different bed with all of those wires hooked to you. Many people find the mind fog getting better, or even going away once they get their treatment optimized. If you do not have a machine yet, try to get an auto adjusting machine.

Hi and welcome

The CPAP can make you feel like your suffocating if the starting pressure or ramp pressure is too low.


What are the settings for your machine

Thanks again. As far as the suffocating feeling, it seemed very hard to exhale. As far as I can tell, I did best on BiPap with pressures of 12/5.

I don't have a machine yet but I've made the appointment to do so.


James_Williams: "The CPAP can make you feel like your suffocating if the starting pressure or ramp pressure is too low."

Didn't understand that comment. I thought the idea of ramp was to start low then ease up?

Also, what's the difference between CPCP + ramp, Biipap, Apap?

Again, many thanks--this support has helped decide to get stated.

By the way, is there a setting for getting notified of people'scomments?

Don’t have much knowledge to share, but wishing you welcome.

A CPAP machine will deliver one constant pressure, but may offer a slight pressure difference for exhaling. With most CPAP machines, the maximum difference between inhale and exhale pressure is 3 cm. An APAP machine will vary the amount of pressure as your needs vary during the night. If you move from side sleeping to sleeping on your back, your pressure needs often change. This machine will adjust the output pressure all night long. This will also offer some pressure relief from inhale to exhale, usually 3 cm or less. A bi-level, or BIPAP machine has the ability to provide higher inhale pressure than a CPAP or APAP, 25 cm compared to 20 cm for the CPAP and APAP. Bi-level machines can provide a greater difference between the inhale and exhale pressure. Ramp is a function on the machines that allows you to start at a lower pressure when the machine first starts, and goes up slowly until it reaches the prescribed pressure. The ramp time can normally be set from 5 minutes to 45 minutes. This feature is especially helpful for people who require higher pressures, and people just starting out on their treatment.

Jrileye wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 10, 2019 2:47 pm

James_Williams: "The CPAP can make you feel like your suffocating if the starting pressure or ramp pressure is too low."
Didn't understand that comment. I thought the idea of ramp was to start low then ease up?

Jas_williams didn't say low, he said too low.

Jrileye wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 10, 2019 2:47 pm

By the way, is there a setting for getting notified of people'scomments?

you will only be notified of a comment when people quote you, as i'm doing now. it'll show up in the light blue bar above where it says "Notifications Private messages" and like that.

you CAN go to settings and set it so you get email notifications, but i confess i don't know how that is set up.

good luck!

btw, if YOU quote someone you are responding to, then the will see a notification, too.

Interesting that they tried some titration with a bilevel machine, and it’d be nice if that’s what you got, since it can be set to function as a plain APAP machine if you want, but a plain APAP can’t be set to do everything a bilevel machine can.

If you have a choice of brand, a lot of people on the forum like ResMed better than Philips Respironics, though many people do just fine with PR machines. I had one week of home titration on a PR and felt I was constantly fighting it over the timing of my inhalation and exhalation. After that, I was given a ResMed machine, which always followed my lead beautifully. I’m now using a ResMed VAUTO, which is a bilevel machine, and I like it very much. (Thank you forum member LSAT!)

As for apprehension, one little step to keep in mind is first to try wearing your mask during the day while you read or watch TV, then try hooking it up to the machine during the day. You don’t have to plunge right into night-time use. Ease into it.

And don’t be a stranger—lots of helpful people here!