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30 yr Male Just Diagnosed w/ Severe OSA
#1
30 yr Male Just Diagnosed w/ Severe OSA
Hello everyone!

I was just diagnosed with severe obstructive apnea a couple of weeks ago. My average AHI was about ~45 with it jumping to about ~55 in REM based off of the sleep study. To be honest, I was a bit overwhelmed with all of the information about CPAP when I first received my diagnosis. The sleep techs wouldn't tell me anything. It was quite frustrating. Luckily, I stumbled upon these forums and the information that everyone has provided has been wonderful, especially the information about the CPAP machines and the success stories. Those were very inspirational. Thanks to all of you, I feel like a much more informed patient.  Smile

Anyways, I had my sleep titration study on Sunday, and I met with my primary doctor today. He wrote the prescription and was very chill about the whole entire thing. When I mentioned making adjustments to the pressure settings to optimize the treatment, he said that's fine. I even showed him examples of OSCAR charts to give him an idea of what kind of data we could explore. As soon as I got home from the doctor's office, I ordered my CPAP machine (ResMed Airsense 10 Autoset) and it should be here tomorrow! 

I look forward to taking this journey and hopefully getting a better night's sleep! Thank you and have a great night!

Xile
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#2
RE: 30 yr Male Just Diagnosed w/ Severe OSA
Hello & welcome! Great bunch of people on this forum and very informed when it comes to SA. 

You got questions and/or concerns, no better place to be than right here.  Thumbs-up-2
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#3
RE: 30 yr Male Just Diagnosed w/ Severe OSA
You lucked out with your doctor, your machine, and the people on this forum. Once you get going, please post more!
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#4
RE: 30 yr Male Just Diagnosed w/ Severe OSA
I hate to say it, but it sounds too good to be true!  A doctor who didn't discourage you from getting actively involved in your own recovery?  Who seemed interested in your decision-making borne from learning, including fiddling with your therapy parameters?  And the professional therapist/sleep lab tech didn't slip some information to you and deferred to the physician instead?  Wow.  And you didn't get the sales pitch to purchase a 'brick' from the doctor's handy-dandy CPAP, Drug, 'n Tire Centre just around the corner?

Geeeez…. like
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#5
RE: 30 yr Male Just Diagnosed w/ Severe OSA
Hi ReturnofXile,
Welcome to Apnea Board!

Glad your doctor was “chill” about your cpap therapy.

...as he was wiping his brow, thinking....thank goodness, a patient that has some knowledge of what he is doing. Rolleyes

I have a feeling you will become more knowledgeable than your doctor when it comes to Cpap therapy.
OpalRose
Apnea Board Administrator
www.apneaboard.com

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INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE.  ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA.  INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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#6
RE: 30 yr Male Just Diagnosed w/ Severe OSA
(06-13-2019, 12:29 AM)mesenteria Wrote: I hate to say it, but it sounds too good to be true!  A doctor who didn't discourage you from getting actively involved in your own recovery?  Who seemed interested in your decision-making borne from learning, including fiddling with your therapy parameters?  And the professional therapist/sleep lab tech didn't slip some information to you and deferred to the physician instead?  Wow.  And you didn't get the sales pitch to purchase a 'brick' from the doctor's handy-dandy CPAP, Drug, 'n Tire Centre just around the corner?

Geeeez…. like

Oh, I'm sure the people doing the sleep studies are going to be upset. My primary originally ordered a take home sleep study, but my insurance didn't want to pay for it, but strangely they didn't have a problem paying for an overnight sleep study at a facility. My doctor, who's an older gentleman, said the sleep center is going to try and sell me their equipment (which I have no doubt that they would not tolerate someone changing the pressures). Doc said that after they call me with the titration results, they will try to set up a consultation. Little do they know that I won't be needing them.  Too-funny Unfortunately, I do need to at least pretend to go along with it because I still need my medical letter or necessity from their sleep doctor. Don't want to get stuck with a $12k bill. 

Also, so far in my journey into the CPAP world, I have noticed something rather peculiar about the attitudes of people in the medical industry when it comes to CPAP. It's almost like there's this entrenched attitude that all the patients are stupid and can't be trusted to do the simplest things. For example, it becomes very apparent when you try to engage them in anything more than just the basics about CPAP therapy. They constantly interrupt you and won't let you finish your points and then go back to, "You need a prescription to change the pressure. Don't do that." Or they just keep saying the same things. It's like they aren't really listening to you, and they even get emotional as if their way of life was being attacked or something. Luckily, my doctor wasn't like this and it was possible to have an actual discussion about the topic without feeling like the other party was talking down to you.
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#7
RE: 30 yr Male Just Diagnosed w/ Severe OSA
There's a lot more people on CPAP than are on this and other forums, so I expect the bulk of users are uneducated. I recently advised an in-law that he needed to wash and rinse his P10 headgear in hot water to tighten it up every now and then, and how many folks on the popular CPAP forums don't know that?

My doctor is "chill" with my control over usage, as well. I was originally supplied an auto machine at a fixed pressure of 8, but I knew that was for that one session with the sleep study that wasn't a typical sleep night, so after awhile I found the forums, learned how to change the settings, set a range, and figured out 9-12 suited me best. I continue to read the tips on all the masks and my bad habits (mouth breathing being the worst of it) to improve on things. Anyhow, I meet with the doc once per year for a checkup, he reviews the statistics and vitals they take, I tell him of any changes I've made, he pats me on the head and hands me an updated prescription (just in case I run into a supplier who wants one for masks and things).

If you don't mind telling us, what pressure settings were prescribed for your condition?
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#8
RE: 30 yr Male Just Diagnosed w/ Severe OSA
I would have to hazard a guess that there are indeed disinterested, cowed, frightened, overwhelmed, and otherwise submissive people (whom the late psychologist Rotter might say have what he called an 'exterior locus of control', meaning they let outside forces determine how they feel, what they perceive or conclude about nature around them, and how they solve problems) new to their diagnosis of apnea.  But, having spent some time on a couple of fora over the past nearly two years, it would appear that some physicians are also not fully up to speed on apnea and what the numbers mean.  It's a complicated subject!  Much about it is not intuitive, greatly to my dismay.  Thank the Big Guy that we have three or four consistently present and knowledgeable members here to offer their help.  It might be over-reaching a tad, but I think those people have probably saved several scores of lives.  Not too shabby.

Did you mention OSCAR to your physician?  He may not be aware of it, or even of this forum.  If his/her patients bring in their records from OSCAR, that should be the proverbial gold mine for someone who can't/won't get the other software from the suppliers.
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#9
RE: 30 yr Male Just Diagnosed w/ Severe OSA
(06-13-2019, 12:29 AM)mesenteria Wrote: I hate to say it, but it sounds too good to be true!  A doctor who didn't discourage you from getting actively involved in your own recovery?  Who seemed interested in your decision-making borne from learning, including fiddling with your therapy parameters?  And the professional therapist/sleep lab tech didn't slip some information to you and deferred to the physician instead?  Wow.  And you didn't get the sales pitch to purchase a 'brick' from the doctor's handy-dandy CPAP, Drug, 'n Tire Centre just around the corner?

Geeeez…. like

No, actually, it didn't happen. It was a dream. Now here comes the nightmare! Smile
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEBSITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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#10
RE: 30 yr Male Just Diagnosed w/ Severe OSA
I can't believe the time has finally come! I slept with my CPAP machine for the first time last night. Smile Overall, I feel like it was a good experience. There were some positives and negatives. For example, it took me quite a bit of time to fall asleep and I woke up several times to go to the bathroom. I didn't really seem to have any problems with feeling claustrophobic or breathing with the mask. In fact the mask I had ordered ended up fitting better than the one they gave me at the sleep study. The only problem was I seemed to get leaks from my chin area (my chin is kind of small), but I managed to adjust the mask to make sure it didn't leak. In fact, I think I had it on too tight and that it was interfering with my ability to fall asleep. Oh well, I can try again later tonight. Lastly, toward the of sleep, I started hearing weird sounds coming from my hose. It was a bit distracting, but I think it had something to do with the humidity trapped in the hose. 

On the bright side, I woke up with my wife today around 7 am and didn't feel like a sloth. Normally, I would feel extremely fatigued and it would at least take me around 2-3 hours plus eating a meal to just get to the point to where I can function. I thought maybe it was a placebo, but even now as I'm typing this, it's been a couple of hours and I still feel quite alert. I went ahead and decided to download OSCAR and organize the charts the way they wanted it and uploaded a couple of charts. Honestly, I feel pretty good about this whole treatment process. I know that I can probably address these minor issues and over come it. 

As far as the charts go, I was very surprised my the AHI number. It counted 1 central apnea event lasting around 11 seconds and a couple of RERAs. It makes me wonder if I ever got to deep sleep and that maybe I'd have more events in the deeper sleep. I don't even remember dreaming or ever feeling like I really slept that deeply. But who knows maybe my whole concept of how sleep is supposed to feel is messed up. Before being treated, my doctor said that I was literally passing out for 30 seconds every couple of minutes due to the OSAs. Anyways, definitely looking forward to tonight!


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