Your wise opinions

OK, so please forgive me if this is all covered elsewhere. I'm new and none too bright.

At the recommendation of spouse and my regular doctor I turned over my body to a sleep study center.

Slept fine (for being wired). During the night the technician woke me and insisted that I put on the CPAP. She said my O2 saturation was "in the 70's". Slept fine again (for being wired).

So a few days went by and now my doctor's nurse called and said he wants to schedule a CPAP delivered to my house immediately - as in that day. I asked for details on the test results and the only answer I got was "He says you need it." They didn't seem willing or able to share more. Eventually the best I got out of them was that I should talk to the medical equipment delivery company.

So I called them. And surprisingly they were a little more helpful than my doctor's office. I was told that I have "episodes" 57 times per hour. Which doesn't sound terribly right. But I seem to feel / sleep fine. I'm able to count above 7, so I assume my brain is working sufficiently. (How often do you really need to count above 7 anyway?)

So...being somewhat suspicious in nature, I feel like I'm being pushed into this thing with no real input or information. So what do you kind folk think? Is this the "normal" process??? Doesn't someone call you in for a post-test consultation or something? I'm getting resistant to even bothering with it at this point.

Well I can understand how you feel.

It is unfortunate that many sleep doctors prefer to start a patient on CPAP and only review the test results after a month or so of CPAP treatment. There may be a few reasons for this and some of them may be half-way good. But even though your experience may be "normal" that does not make it right.

I do agree that you should not feel pressured into using CPAP without having a chance to sit down and have someone explain why they think you need CPAP and what the sleep study results showed, and also what to expect and to give you a chance to have your questions answered.

However, I hope you will not just ignore them. The "episodes" which are occuring about once a minute are almost certainly apnea events (periods of 10 seconds or longer where no air is going into the lungs) and hypopnea events (periods of significantly reduced intake of air into the lungs of at least 10 seconds). The number of apneas and hypopneas combined divided by the number of hours of sleep during the study constitute the Apnea-Hypopnea Index (or AHI). The severity of sleep apnea is measured by the AHI. Your AHI (which is apparently 57) classifies your apnea as being severe (any AHI over 30 is considered severe). In addition, your bloodsd oxygen level (which should remain at or above the low 90% range ffell down into the 70% range during your study (granted this was probably the lowest recorded reading and probably represents just a small percentage of your total sleep time-your study will also however discuss your average oxygen level which may well also be low). But operating with low oxygen is not good.

What nobody has bothered to tell you is all the other data in the sleep study report which document the other effects that sleep apnea is having in terms of interfering with your sleep, especially your REM sleep and your deep sleep (sometimes called delta sleep or Stage III/IV sleep) which are believed to be the 2 parts of sleep most important to your body's functioning. You can have severe apnea and not be aware of it, at least not until you start developing other related problems.

But don't take my word for this (after all I haven't seen your report), ask them to show you.

In the meantime, check out the Our Collective Wisdom section and read up on MileHighSleeper's article on the stages of apnea (or maybe it's cpap), read up and educate yourself about apnea and about sleep study terminology. Do this because it will help you understand what the doctor is talking about when you do get them to go over the reports with you. Do it also so that you understand that the consequences if you should decide to just toss this whole issue aside.

Do keep us posted on how you make out.

Best wishes,
Bill

Honestly, I think it depends. My experience was quite similar to yours. In fact, to this day I've never seen the results of the sleep study itself. But, I can unequivocally say that since I started CPAP therapy that I feel better, and I've stopped having things like falling asleep at the wheel occur to me. But before I started therapy, I wouldn't have believed I had a problem at all, in fact, I went 28 years without a clue, until my now wife told me that I noticeably stopped breathing at night.

Yep .. only 6 beers in a six-pack (almost 7).

Lots’a folks around here with episodes in the 50's (they counted 102 for me ... don't ask me how) ... but 50 with 7 more is still a significant number. Then if you multiply 10 times 7, you get 70 (7 followed by a zero) which was your O2 saturation. That means you were suffering from sever hypoxia (70% of your normal oxygen needs). Your brain began having O2 withdrawals and started psyching out your heart to work like a dog and your entire vascular system was stressing out over that. The rest of your body organs were being neglected with your whole body being terrorized by the build up toxic wastes. So your immune security system declared a state of emergency (code orange or something like that?) and sent out inflammatory patrols to break cell walls down and treat everyone like an enemy combatant. All the while, 50 and 7 times per hour you were gasping for more air and each of those episodes you were awakened from deep sleep and yet managed to sleep right through it all without ever you knowing you woke up that many times (50 and 7 that is).

I would follow the more important advice from your doctor and try to bring peace and democracy to you body by using the CPAP thingy. You won't need the wires though. However, do be suspicious of the wise guy at the medical equipment delivery company as he may trick you out of your money and give you the wrong CPAP thingy while you doze into confusion.

Best o luck!

It the low oxygen that freaked them out. If you were hospitalized for a broken leg, and your oxygen saturation dropped beneath 90% they would be giving you additional oxygen.

They are right in rushing you the treatment. The sleep study analysis can wait - you simply must not drop to that low pulse oxygen level ever.

In a traffic accident, if a person has a massive haemorrhage from a wound, you press it to stop the haemorrage, you don't wait for a leg xray to see if - their bone is broken.

Use the cpap from the minute you get it - and then start learning about it, fine tuning the therapy etc. You will discover yourself much brighter when your oxygen level don't drop like that - you'll be able to learn more about the therapy, the possibilities, and you decision making capability will also improve.

If they insist you buy the machine now - try to bargain for having it on loan, till you've seen the results and spoken with the doc - but don't postpone or reject it.

O.




O.

ozij wrote:It the low oxygen that freaked them out. If you were hospitalized for a broken leg, and your oxygen saturation dropped beneath 90% they would be giving you additional oxygen.

They are right in rushing you the treatment. The sleep study analysis can wait - you simply must not drop to that low pulse oxygen level ever.

In a traffic accident, if a person has a massive haemorrhage from a wound, you press it to stop the haemorrage, you don't wait for a leg xray to see if - their bone is broken.

Use the cpap from the minute you get it - and then start learning about it, fine tuning the therapy etc. You will discover yourself much brighter when your oxygen level don't drop like that - you'll be able to learn more about the therapy, the possibilities, and you decision making capability will also improve.

If they insist you buy the machine now - try to bargain for having it on loan, till you've seen the results and spoken with the doc - but don't postpone or reject it.

O.

This is GREAT ADVICE :::
If they insist you buy the machine now - try to bargain for having it on loan, till you've seen the results and spoken with the doc - but don't postpone or reject it.
I would also mention to get a COMPLETE copy of the test date & script ---- THEN talk with your Insurance Company == If you have to pay 20% on the rental of the EQUIPMENT for 13-15 months ?? You might be ahead by getting the stuff from CPAP.COM & Not deal with insurance and being stuck with Junque at four times the price! I'm paying $300 more than if I had bought the same thing outright -- All so get the best machine YOU can get data out SO YOU can be in charge of your CARE......Not somebody that is interested in your $$$$$


BERT