Hi! I have a CPAP machine, but do I need it? Sleep study attached

[Walla Walla]

Grazi, You can post your stuff now. Your a member.

[CB91710]

While your AHI looks good (Kaiser won't prescribe CPAP unless you are 12+), you also have the O2 saturation dropping to below 90%. Even in the absence of a high AHI, the drop in O2 levels is often enough to warrant a prescription.

I ended up doing two (home) studies. My first night I actually did quite well, my wife even commented that I wasn't snoring.
Since the numbers looked good, but both my wife and I complained of the snoring, they agreed to run a 2nd study that ran for 2 nights. One of those days I was at AHI 15 and O2 sat of 89. That was enough for the doc to write the prescription.

"Mild" apnea is still apnea

[trish6hundred]

Hi Grazi,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
Good luck with CPAP therapy.

[Apnea Infant]

Hi Grazi

Welcome to the forum.

With the National Health Service in the UK and its rising costs, prescriptions can be hard to come by. My home overnight oximetry concluded that I have mild to moderate apnea (supposed estimate obtained from oxygen desaturation from oximetry). Initial advice was that CPAP would not be needed, apnea being mild. I persisted with the health authorities as I had been suffering from morning headaches and continual exhaustion. Next step was a brain MRI(to rule out pathological reasons for my headaches) whilst waiting for a in hospital sleep study which did take almost 6 months to be set up. Long story short, despite diagnosis of about 7 apneas per hour, when they occurred they were so intense, 20cm H2O was needed to open my airways.

So yeah, apnea is apnea, mild or not.

Looking back, I am really glad I pushed for further interrogations as I was almost coming to a standstill in energy levels. How did you feel before CPAP and how do you feel now?

[Sleep2Snore]

Hi Grazi,
You should give CPAP a chance to see if you feel any better, if you have any fatigue it might get a lot less, however, as you are mild you might not have much fatigue.  You might find the mask to be the biggest problem, a lot of people do.  Nasal Pillows are easier to get on with, however that will depend if you are a mouth breather or not.
Most people do not care for being attached to a machine at night, I didn't much care for it either, but I got my life back and a lot more energy.
Mild patients sometimes do not notice the benefits so much, but CPAP does help in small ways, such as stopping running to the toilet during the night if it bothers you, Sleep Apnea can have other effects that are not so obvious at the start of treatment, such as leading to strokes, heart attack, diabetes etc.
If you are carrying a bit of weight you can sometimes help yourself by loosing a bit of weight, thought it works with most, it does not always work.  Your weight was on the form, but I forget what it was.
Anyway, I think you should give it a try, you are mild, so you will maybe not notice the improvement immediately, but give it your best shot.
The machines are very quiet now and the only real noise is the air coming from the vents on the mask.
Machines of the past were quite noisy, some of the first one were just plain loud!  People were still glad of them though and did use them and when they saw the benefits, they would not be without then.

Good luck with your CPAP.
Welcome to the forum.