Full Face Mask question for Oxygen/cpap folks

[nmbugs]

Those of you who have to use oxygen with their cpap, what mask do you use? Right now I am using a vented ResMed Quattro Air and I have a connecter that plugs into the back of my S-9 AutoSet. I am still desaturating at night to high 70s to low 80s. My AHIs has been around 4.9.

I am using sleepy head and there have been no leaks reported via the software and I sure haven't felt any (except when my nose itches and I really have to scratch it It's amazing how much my nose itches once I put my mask on!!). My oxygen tubing isn't crushed or ripped (first thing I checked!!) and both machines are working just fine.

I am wondering if it has to do with the oxygen port being so far from me if that could cause the desaturations? Nasal cannulas go right up your nose to deliver the oxygen but now at night that oxygen must travel though a lot of tubing to get to me. I am going to try moving the port directly to my mask again and see if that helps, I tried once before but it made it hard to go to sleep being all bulky but if it works maybe that will let me know if a mask with the oxygen port is what I need.

Then again maybe I am still desaturating because I am still having apneas? I was bad and went into my setup to activate the EPR setting since I am still having problems tolerating the pressures. I will be interested in seeing if that helps any tonight with my desaturations or apnea activity. I know with the respironics constant flow I felt like I was constantly suffocating and that has gotten better with the autoset. I know I shouldn't do that but my doctor is over 2 hours away and I am pretty desperate at this point.

Sorry for yet more questions. I am 100% committed to making this therapy work and don’t want to lose that motivation due to frustration.

PS. I did call my doctor’s office and told them I was still desaturating. The nurse is going to talk with the doctor to see if he wants to go ahead with the home saturation study now or give it some more adjustment time.

[Peter_C]

When you say you are desating into the 70s/80s - how long of a period are we talking? Are you using a recording Oximeter and pulling data? Is this for 5-20 seconds or an average or the lowest or what?

The line I like to watch is total minutes under 88 = what? I happen to be pleased when mine is less than 5 minutes a session. I desat a *LOT*, but for very short periods at a time (which may also be 'noise' - finger moving on sensor) - so you need to kinda study it all.

[nmbugs]

When you say you are desating into the 70s/80s - how long of a period are we talking? Are you using a recording Oximeter and pulling data? Is this for 5-20 seconds or an average or the lowest or what?

The line I like to watch is total minutes under 88 = what? I happen to be pleased when mine is less than 5 minutes a session. I desat a *LOT*, but for very short periods at a time (which may also be 'noise' - finger moving on sensor) - so you need to kinda study it all.

During my sleep study I was in my 69-79 most the night. This of course was without my oxygen. During the titration study the tech tried me without oxygen at first and I desaturated to 50. Then he put the oxygen on and brought me back up to 88 for the rest of the night.

My husband had to work overnight programming this weekend so he was able to monitor my levels. He said I pretty much ran consistently high 70s - low 80s. I called my doctor today so he is ordering an overnight saturation study and my DME is just waiting on the paperwork. Hopefully I can get that for tomorrow night.

I don't know if you saw my other posts but I have pulmonary arterial hypertension which the docs suspect is from chronic pulmonary emboli. In most last 2 CTs my pulm artery has been constantly enlarging and the last one they noticed calcification of the artery supposedly from the pulmonary emboli. Just went for a ventilation perfusion lung scan yesterday so I hope we will know more tomorrow. My primary care doc says I should be on blood thinners but my pulm isn't going to put me on any until my scan comes back. About every 2 weeks my right leg swells up then a few days later I have chest pains. The hospital here isn't the best so all they have done is scanned my leg when in the ER, never any CT at that time my chest pains are severe enough to make me go to the ER (which according to my pulm they should have done) to check where the clot has gone. So I am not sure if clots could be causing saturations to be constantly low at night or if that’s par for the course with PAH? My PAH has also caused some damage to my heart, so maybe that is playing into this too. I don’t see my new cardiologist until the end of the month though.

[nmbugs]

Peter,

I meant to ask, are you on oxygen? I am on it all day/night. On my good days my numbers during the day stay in low 90s. But on my bad days, usually when I push myself too hard my numbers can still drop pretty good but only when I am active.

[Peter_C]

No (least not yet), I am not on O2 at all. I've got a number of different issues going on at the same time (had multiple PEs two different times so far, so lung scaring doesn't help). My father in-law passed from COPD and my wife and I were his caregivers the last 3yrs.

I know zip about the above issues, so by all means ignore my wonderings...

Chronic low numbers is bad news, and while it's usually normal to run lower at night, we're still talking staying above 88 on average. Currently am dealing with anemia and I can drop myself to the low 60s very easily But sitting still I always come back to the mid 90s.

My mother is on 2liters at night, but nothing (currently) during the day - and she isn't on xPAP therapy at all, go figure.

I for one would like to read what you learn during the test. I know the urge is strong to simply raise it a liter or 2, but while that can work short-term, it's tough on the body as sooner or later you have to try to wean back off.

If I were in your shoes, if the test is not ASAP, I'd call the DR back for short-term instructions? Mid to low 80s even short-term can cause headaches and other stress type issues.