Sleep Doc Followups - Yes or No?

Of course, OSCAR only reports what the machine flags. I have looked at my flow and can identify many inaccuracies. Tagged OSA that was not OSA. Same with CSA/open airways. But if everyone believes it is VERY accurate, good for them. I’ve lain awake for the last 1/2 hour and had a whole grouping of OSA and open airways flagged that I know are wrong. Some through the night are correct, of course, but still some errors. Usually, though, the reported AHI is higher than they would be if the false flags were tossed out and the AHI was calculated manually.

Mel0806 wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 24, 2022 7:47 pm

Of course, OSCAR only reports what the machine flags. I have looked at my flow and can identify many inaccuracies. Tagged OSA that was not OSA. Same with CSA/open airways. But if everyone believes it is VERY accurate, good for them. I’ve lain awake for the last 1/2 hour and had a whole grouping of OSA and open airways flagged that I know are wrong. Some through the night are correct, of course, but still some errors. Usually, though, the reported AHI is higher than they would be if the false flags were tossed out and the AHI was calculated manually.

If you are finding what you think are errors in the flagging then you need to take it up with your machine's manufacturer and tell them they are wrong.
OSCAR doesn't do the flagging or labeling.....your machine does that job.
Don't go blaming OSCAR for something your machine is doing/recording. That's not OSCAR's job.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 24, 2022 7:55 pm

Mel0806 wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 24, 2022 7:47 pm

Of course, OSCAR only reports what the machine flags. I have looked at my flow and can identify many inaccuracies. Tagged OSA that was not OSA. Same with CSA/open airways. But if everyone believes it is VERY accurate, good for them. I’ve lain awake for the last 1/2 hour and had a whole grouping of OSA and open airways flagged that I know are wrong. Some through the night are correct, of course, but still some errors. Usually, though, the reported AHI is higher than they would be if the false flags were tossed out and the AHI was calculated manually.

If you are finding what you think are errors in the flagging then you need to take it up with your machine's manufacturer and tell them they are wrong.
OSCAR doesn't do the flagging or labeling.....your machine does that job.
Don't go blaming OSCAR for something your machine is doing/recording. That's not OSCAR's job.

Did you read my first sentence?

Mel0806 wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 24, 2022 8:45 pm

Did you read my first sentence?

Yep. Sure did. In fact I read all your sentences.

Mel0806 wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 24, 2022 7:47 pm

Of course, OSCAR only reports what the machine flags. I have looked at my flow and can identify many inaccuracies. Tagged OSA that was not OSA. Same with CSA/open airways. But if everyone believes it is VERY accurate, good for them.

Sure sounds like you are referring to OSCAR but if you are saying the machine is making the mistakes then why bring OSCAR into it?

And again below you mention OSCAR and not the machine.

Mel0806 wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 24, 2022 5:27 pm

The numbers that OSCAR gives you can be notoriously innaccurate and if you can’t spot these inaccuracies it could be a problem.

Now if you want to take up your gripe about what you perceive as inaccuracies from your machine then go right ahead but don't allude to it being OSCAR that is inaccurate.

As for the machine flagging awake breathing irregularities as some sort of event....these machines ONLY MEASURE AIR FLOW and they can't tell if the irregular breathing it is sensing is from our awake breathing irregularities or airway flow reduction irregularities from obstructing tissues.
Again take it up with the machine manufacturers if you want a machine that can tell awake breathing from asleep breathing or in other words tell us if we were asleep or not. I would love to have one of those machines.

And just because you think the machine is wrong....doesn't make it so. Try proving that to the machine manufacturers when you get them to listen to you about what they should do.

Have a nice day....I am done with you.

Mel0806 wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 24, 2022 5:27 pm

Even The LankyLefty27 (if you know who he is) always tells you to discuss important issues with your doctor. Don’t presume anyone here knows more than a doctor.

CPAP is a kind of therapy.
Most doctors - no matter what their specialty do not do - therapy.
They do differential diagnosis.
Then they write a script for the person who does the day to day therapy.

People with type 1 diabetes, using an insulin pump titrate their own insulin every day - they do not contact their doctor before every meal. And they don't even learn how to use the pump from their doctor.

Those of us of who have broken a bone, sprained a joint know that they usually had some kind of imaging test, have has it analyzed by a doctor who specialized in that body party, diagnosed by an orthopedist perhaps had surgery (hope you're doing well, ChunkyFrog!) and then sent to physiotherapy.

The professional who does your colonoscopy, the surgeon who takes out your colon, none of them help you live with your stoma.
Ditto the neurologist who diagnoses your stroke be it from a stopped blood vesel or a burst one, they don't do your speech therapy, nor do they rehabilitate the use of your hand, arm or leg.

It's not a physician who helps you learn to live with crutches or a wheel chair. Or how brush you teeth or comb your hair...

And the cardiologist who was there to diagnose and take care of your heart attack? He or she is certainly not there when you're doing your heart rehab.

Same for CPAP. If the therapy isn't working, it could be because the diagnosis was wrong, and you need a repeat visit to the doctor. However, given the many things you have to get used to when learning to sleep with a CPAP, focusing on the therapy itself, with the help of people who've been using CPAP day in day out -- sorry, night in, night out -- is a good idea.

Mel0806 wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 24, 2022 5:27 pm

Even The LankyLefty27 (if you know who he is) always tells you to discuss important issues with your doctor. Don’t presume anyone here knows more than a doctor.

You meant this guy, don't you? The guy who recommends mouth taping, for those of us who mouth leak; as in: Tape mouth to improve CPAP INSTANTLY!!!

The guy who found out that the "slit" in the tape makes it useless.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SlOLPR81X4

Yep. We know Lanky Lefty. He's great!

Mel0806 wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 24, 2022 7:47 pm

I’ve lain awake for the last 1/2 hour and had a whole grouping of OSA and open airways flagged that I know are wrong.

And thus, we spot the reason that doctors don't just ask people "so, do you have sleep apnea?" because most people will simply say "no, I don't wake up 74 times an hour all night long, of course I don't have sleep apnea.".

Your machine is flagging breathing problems, because you weren't breathing normally during that half hour.

Believe what you want, every breath is recorded.

A couple of comments from this discussion...

1. There is talk of the machine / Oscar flagging false positive events, thus reporting an AHI higher than the actual. On the other hand, Nicko Dundai of CPAP Reviews had a bunch of RTs score results from an AS10 Autoset and found a lot of unflagged events (nearly all hypopnea). His conclusion was that the AS10 actually under-reports the AHI. There's a YouTube video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCqyc4aWnuk

2. From what I have read over many years, the great majority of sleep docs do not look in detail at the data and graphs, but confine themselves to AHI and hours. Obviously we can't make a blanket statement that this applies to all sleep doctors, but there's plenty of anecdotal evidence that it applies to the great majority.

3. I've never met my sleep doctor. My PSG showed an AHI of 62, nearly all centrals, but he diagnosed obstructive sleep apnea. When I queried this (by phone consult) he gave me a speech about how qualified he was and how good their equipment was. Totally ignored the fact that he had misdiagnosed my condition. Idiot. First and last time I had contact with him.

I saw the sleep doctor a total of 3 times. When he wrote the prescription, at my 90 day insurance followup and at my 1 year followup. He was not interested in the numbers (except compliance) and he never even noticed I had changed my own settings. He basically patted me on the head said good girl see ya next year. I haven't been back.

I do follow up here and post my charts every now and again & you can be darn sure if it was recommended by someone I trust here "hey go see a doctor something doesn't look right" I would go see a doctor.

The real point of this thread is, imho, is that grumpy48 that's been here since May 2020 and has a couple hundred intelligent posts since then, can probably look at a reanimated zombie account that dates back to 2008 and only has 19 posts, 6 of them in this thread, all of which were stupid and have already pissed off the Moderator, and say "hmm, I can certainly WHICH zombies to ignore.

Mel0806 wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 24, 2022 5:27 pm

The numbers that OSCAR gives you can be notoriously innaccurate and if you can’t spot these inaccuracies it could be a problem. Obviously your PCP can’t tell you so the next thing I would do is ask him for a referral or look for one yourself and have him give you a referral to that doctor.

This is so FOS. Sleep doctors rely heavily on CPAP machines' reported AHIs. Contrast this with OSCAR users who look at the AHI and scroll through the breath waveforms for interpretation.

Typically, patients get one in-lab study (or home study) and that is it. For the rest of life, docs will rely on CPAP machine reports of AHI and usage hours. Period.

Grumpy48 wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 24, 2022 6:37 pm

As of recently I've had some hints of cardiac issues which may or may not be related to years of untreated apnea (Holter monitor for a couple of days a few weeks ago).

Well, there you go.

1) If you see you see your GP and mention hints of cardiac issues, he will refer you to a cardiologist for a Holter monitor study. (A few GPs actually prescribe Holter monitors themselves.)

2) If you see a sleep doc and mention hints of cardiac issues, he will refer you to a cardiologist for a Holter monitor study.

So, why waste time and money seeing a sleep doc?

palerider wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 25, 2022 1:36 am

The real point of this thread is, imho, is that grumpy48 that's been here since May 2020 and has a couple hundred intelligent posts since then, can probably look at a reanimated zombie account that dates back to 2008 and only has 19 posts, 6 of them in this thread, all of which were stupid and have already pissed off the Moderator, and say "hmm, I can certainly WHICH zombies to ignore.

Grumpy said his PCP doesn't ask questions and only writes a script every year. I pissed off the moderator for giving my opinion and continuing to give reasons why? For stating my opinions that don't agree with the moderator? Stupid in the opinion of the moderator? Too f***ing bad!

Mel0806 wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 24, 2022 7:47 pm

Of course, OSCAR only reports what the machine flags. I have looked at my flow and can identify many inaccuracies. Tagged OSA that was not OSA. Same with CSA/open airways. But if everyone believes it is VERY accurate, good for them. I’ve lain awake for the last 1/2 hour and had a whole grouping of OSA and open airways flagged that I know are wrong. Some through the night are correct, of course, but still some errors. Usually, though, the reported AHI is higher than they would be if the false flags were tossed out and the AHI was calculated manually.

If you can find inaccuracies, then post them.

The way you're going on about them happening all the time, should be easy.

Dog Slobber wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 25, 2022 6:40 am

If you can find inaccuracies, then post them.

The way you're going on about them happening all the time, should be easy.

My intention was to answer the original question(s) and I am not going to derail the thread with posts of my results. If you want to start a new thread, I'll be glad to accommodate you. We can all learn...

Mel0806 wrote: ↑

Thu Aug 25, 2022 6:00 am

Grumpy said his PCP doesn't ask questions and only writes a script every year. I pissed off the moderator for giving my opinion and continuing to give reasons why? For stating my opinions that don't agree with the moderator? Stupid in the opinion of the moderator? Too f***ing bad!

He does not write a yearly script, only did the initial one for the DME so I could get a machine. Not sure where you got that(?)