O2 levels and O2 at night

Just out of curiosity - did your doctor put you on O2 at night after a sleep study or oximetry that showed sats in the 80s?

Edit: I'm talking about using O2 between 1st diagnosis and first use of any machine. My question wasn't clear.

After my first oximetry in August, my doctor put me on O2 at night and I was on it until I got my machine December 14th. I haven't read many stories of O2 use between first diagnosis and getting a machine. Any stories?

I had oxygen levels drop to 73% during the first sleep study. Apparently sufficiently remedied during the cpap titration study as oxygen levels stayed up in the mid 90% with only one short drop to 88%. No need for added O2 in my case. I have no other complicating health factors though. No lung problems and no history of centrals. An overnight pulse ox test about 4 months into treatment showed to remarkable desats. So the pressure needed to keep the airway open is sufficient to prevent any significant drops in O2.
Daytime O2 levels run about 99%.

Pugsy, Did they send you home to sleep with sats in the 70's after your sleep study, before you got your machine? That's what I'm really asking.

Maybe people get their machines a lot faster than I did, but it seems irresponsible to send patients home without some type of treatment before they can be titrated onto a machine. For me, it was 15 weeks!

teknomom wrote:Pugsy, Did they send you home to sleep with sats in the 70's after your sleep study, before you got your machine? That's what I'm really asking

Yep, they sure did.

3 weeks till I could get the titration study done (criteria for split night study was based on events and not O2 levels and I didn't meet criteria first night due to minimal sleep) and another few days to get the doctor's report on the titration study.

When questioning the nurse about the 3 weeks...her response..."Well, you know you haven't died yet from this and you have had it for a long time".. yep, that was the response.

My sats were in the 70's as well i beleave, ( I will have to bubble cheack) but I was sent home without 02 and did not get my machine for 2 weeks.

and that's why we are all here!

teknomom wrote:Pugsy, Did they send you home to sleep with sats in the 70's after your sleep study, before you got your machine? That's what I'm really asking.

Maybe people get their machines a lot faster than I did, but it seems irresponsible to send patients home without some type of treatment before they can be titrated onto a machine. For me, it was 15 weeks!

Same here Teri, I waited too. Though, my desats weren't as bad as some others, in the 80's. But still I too had to wait for my machine without any supplemental O2.

It could depend on how bad the desats are, and the % of the night spent in those desats, as well as the history and current condition of the patient. Like in my case, I'm otherwise pretty healthy so desats of 84 or 85 for 25% of the night over 2 weeks is not so critical, whereas if I had a heart condition with a history of heart failure or other similar issues, and was desatting into the 70's for 50% or more each night then perhaps one could make a strong case to get supplemental O2. Just guessing on that. Looking back, I don't think my desats were that bad that it would have required O2 for those 2 weeks until I got the machine.

CPAP should take care of the desats, however now that I know it hasn't, I'm finally getting the O2 concentrator.

My desats were below 88 about 25% of the time, too. I guess I just have a very conservative doctor when It comes to treating low O2.

I assure you that if you were in the hospital and spent 25% of the night below 88% you WOULD be put on 02 IMMEDIATELY!!!!!! It WOULD be considered CRITICAL.

[quote="ameriken"]... I'm otherwise pretty healthy so desats of 84 or 85 for 25% of the night over 2 weeks is not so critical, ...[quote]

my O2 was in the 70s and I got oxygen. I feel better on 5liters/minute but I was told to go with 2. oxygen is a vasoconstrictor and there may be side effects to oxygen therapy

Is 94% O2 during the day low? I'm really foggy sometimes and have memory/learning problems and headaches with the asthma. anyone else get this?

Slinky wrote:I assure you that if you were in the hospital and spent 25% of the night below 88% you WOULD be put on 02 IMMEDIATELY!!!!!! It WOULD be considered CRITICAL.

I didn't realize that...my doc (a pulmonologist) wasn't too concerned about these desats, though he did order the concentrator.

I also went back and looked at my original sleep study...they even noted that while I was breathing on the ASV during titration that I was still desatting into the 80's, and indicated that there could be some underlying lung condition (which there is). I guess I should have been put on oxy right from the start and I'm surprised that's all they said or did about it.

Well, I'm glad I'm starting on it tonite anyway.

ASV??? So you had a lot of central apneas??? WHY were you titrated w/an ASV?

I spent the same 18% of time below 90% on both studies, but the first study my minimum was 81% and the titration was 88%. Guess that's because they got my apneas down from 60 seconds to 20 seconds.
I think I'm going to take my machine to my dad's for a nap with O2 this weekend and see what I'm missing!

Slinky wrote:ASV??? So you had a lot of central apneas??? WHY were you titrated w/an ASV?

Had 2 studies....titration on CPAP did nothing since I had mostly centrals. Came back a 2nd time to be titrated on the ASV.

Edit: First study, I had 2 obstructives, 39 centrals, and 9 hypopneas. Then they put me on CPAP which obviously didn't work.

Okay. Now I'm catching on a bit. 'At's a whole new sitseeashun. Heaven forbid I should have looked at your equipment in your sig. Duh.

Those centrals may well have influence on the delay in adding 02 and request for a 3rd in-lab study. Most likely this one will be WITH 02 AND ASV to determine if THAT does the trick for you - or if there are STILL problems and challenges to overcome.