qt9998 Therapy Thread

[Sleeprider]

Lots of spikes in the flow rate suggest lots of variable breathing, but as long as you're not tipping into periodic breathing and CA this looks promising.

[qt9998]

Yikes!  Results last night miserable again (and still can't get past 4 hours).

   


The great zero AHI results must have been due to taking pain meds (oxycotone or tylenol)

or sleeping sitting up, or combination of both.

Tonight I'll set EPR to 0 as suggested by Gideon and Sleeprider.

[qt9998]

Results no better.

   

Report shows EPR on but machine shows off (I turned it off before starting)??

Waiting for titration test appointment.

[Sleeprider]

Your sleep test was inadequate to determine whether apnea was central or obstructive. You need a proper clinical polysomnograph (PSG) evaluation that is capable of determining, not just the occurrence of apnea and hypopnea, but to also record respiratory effort to properly differentiate central or obstructive events. There is nothing we can do to help optimize the wrong therapy. You need to ask your doctor for help getting appropriate testing and therapy for your apparently complex sleep apnea.

[qt9998]

Thank you Sleeprider.

I am trying to see either a pulmonologist or ENT. Which do you think is best?

[Sleeprider]

I'm not a big fan of specialists, and I especially would not see an ENT for a complex apnea issue. Any sleep specialist or your primary doctor could order a a 12-lead PSG sleep test to verify complex (obstructive +central) sleep breathing disorder, or a titration test to evaluate bilevel pressure with the option to move to ASV if centrals or periodic breathing is present. A lot depends on what your insurance requires to pay for the needed therapy, but it is going to start with a correct diagnosis. I think your AirView study detected a lot of apnea and hypopnea and SpO2 desaturation, but without a chest and abdominal belt, it did not record respiratory effort or determine sleep stage, position and many other factors.

Choose your specialist by asking if they are familiar and able to treat complex and central sleep apnea. Sometimes these are neurologists, but most central sleep apnea is idiopathic and not related to neurological, pulmonary, cardiac or otolarnangological issues. You are looking for a doctor that will evaluate you without the usual bias that all apnea is obstructive.

[quiescence at last]

Results no better.



Report shows EPR on but machine shows off (I turned it off before starting)??

Waiting for titration test appointment.

You posted Dec 23 twice, so that is why  it looks so much like the previous night, and EPR surprise.

QAL