In anticipation of my BIPAP Re: New Thread

[ApneaQuestions]

At the time of the 60 pound weight loss and the associated sleep study.... Phoebe was.
Her report said...  this reveals evidence of obstructive sleep apnea of very mild degree
So mild in fact that the conclusion was that she didn't need CPAP treatment.... and hence Phoebe's question/confusion.

[Sleeprider]

I saw a lot of inconsistent and unsupported diagnostic statements. I trust most sleep studies and sleep doctor diagnoses about as much as a pack of stray pit bulls outside a junk yard...make that a guy selling jewelry out of pocket on a street corner. LOL Not much!

[ApneaQuestions]

Me too... that's why I go for the meta-analyses that average out some of the inconsistencies.
Of course... if every study ever carried out was fundamentally flawed in the same way then maybe we should just feed those researchers to the stray pit bulls and throw their remains into the car-compactor inside the junk yard. ;-)

EDIT: Why does my Rolex have a clicking motion to the second hand instead of a smooth continuous slide?

[70sSanO]

I have emphasized for a long time that your therapy turns more on comfort than the numbers.  If you stick to that thought, it really takes away a lot of emphasis on analyzing OSCAR, and puts more focus on what matters.

This is something a lot of people who are struggling need to think about. The focus should be on moving toward feeling better and more refreshed.

If the optimum, higher pressure to prevent one thing, causes disruptive sleep, something is wrong.  Obviously different machines that provide more appropriate/better therapy make a bigger difference.  But no one should actually feel worse on xPAP.  Even a little more air is better than none.

I’ve said it before, most medical situations,, other than imminent life threatening, are treating in a progressive nature, not an all out attack.  With CPAP, it seems to be all or nothing.  If you can’t adjust to all, you end up with nothing.

John

[Plmnb]

         Wow.  Quite a bit to respond to today.  I'll start with the visit to my new shrink in this post.  I will then more closely read this mornings posts and reply accordingly in additional replies.


Turns out I didn't need to be apprehensive about the visit, he was the nicest man and the first shrink I ever met that I felt extremely comfortable with.

We met for an hour and covered pretty much everything, (ooh, so sorry AQ...not CBT...hopefully in two weeks at my next appointment).  The bottom line is I was prescribed my Olanzipine (Zyprexa) and my Divalproex (Depakote).  Both of these medications may or may not help me with my sleep quality.  There are contradictory articles on the ability of these drugs to help with sleep, but as always the case with bipolar medications, ya gotta try the different cocktails to see what works best for an individual.  The fact that these are both fairly low doses is a bonus in the sleep department.

(AQ, if you are interested I found a very technical article in The Mental Health Clinician on the Olanzipine that I can share with you in your antidepressant thread).

We discussed the use of any marijuana and I will no longer partake.  My psychiatrist said that marijuana and bipolar are not a good mix.  Not even in small amounts.

He was interested in the parasominia angle.  We shall see how these two medications impact this situation.

I'm not clear on his thoughts about how sleep apnea has been reported to worsen BD.  We definitely discussed the sleep apnea, but some of the meeting is more clear than other bits.  When we meet in 2 weeks I'll talk to him more about it.

That's all for the update on the shrink visit.

Plmnb

[Plmnb]

AQ,

Here is the OVERVIEW GRAPH for 1/2/20 to 1/29/20.  I hope it is ok that I included the FLOW LIMITATION panel for the RERA panel.  I didn't have a single RERA since at least the 29th of December according to what the graph reported.

[attachment=19550]


sleeprider, do you think I can make an adjustment for tonight?  According to the information AQ suggested I review about the Aerophagia I believe I should adjust the pressure a bit?  Now that I have the leaks under so much more control with the foam mask and have the mask set to the correct type, perhaps some tweaking may be warranted?

Thank you so much!!

Plmnb

[Plmnb]

Btw, this is sooo strange...twice now...yesterday and today...AQ reminders.

[attachment=19551]

[ApneaQuestions]

Glad to hear that neither of those drugs are antidepressants. That decision is consistent with the meta analyses.
Glad to hear your decision on MJ . That too is consistent with the meta analyses.
These things are probably best discussed on the antidepressant thread since that's where most of the interaction on those topics took place.
I'm disappointed that he didn't automatically suggest psychotherapy and particularly CBT and very specifically David Burns's version of it.
The meta analyses clearly demonstrate that they help and they have no risk. So why that was not an automatic recommendation is a mystery to me.
There's a fundamental difference between psychiatrists and psychotherapists... not least of which.. the former can prescribe drugs and the latter cannot.

[Plmnb]

AQ, Lol, baby steps, baby steps, all in due time. 

Plmnb

[ApneaQuestions]

Btw, this is sooo strange...twice now...yesterday and today...AQ reminders.

I'm certainly glad I didn't choose "BraveSleeper" as a pseudonym. ;-)