10-27-2020, 10:01 PM
Theoretically everything is fine...
Hey y'all
New to the forum, but I've been using a CPAP since July. I'd say I'm used to it by now. I have no issues falling asleep with the mask, I rarely rip it off in the middle of the night now, and I haven't really been having issues with leaks either. At the beginning of October, my ahi was averaging about 7 or 8 and I had noticed no improvements in how I was feeling. At that point, I had not had a titration study done because insurance decided to just give me an automatic cpap and see what happened, so my machine was set to 4-20 and usually settled around 12. Anyways, long story short I got a titration study done and they decided 4-6 was the optimal pressure. I'm aware this is like, ridiculously low. But my ahi has lowered to just under 5 and I'm having less central apneas so I guess I'm just weird. (Not that this is news to me.)
The thing is, during the titration study my ahi was 0.2. I had one apnea (central) during the entire 6 hours I was asleep. So when I had the virtual appointment to hear how the study went, they were like "Yay! Everything is fixed now!" And then I was like, okay but in the two nights since then I've been using the exact same settings as in the lab and my ahi has averaged 5.23, which is better than before but is also significantly different than 0.2 and everything is not fixed and I'm still tired. Anyways, after the person I was talking to consulted 3 different people we decided that I was "complicated" and I decided to schedule another appointment in four weeks (which is coming up soon) so that we'd have more data to look at.
I'm not really looking for advice, but if anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear them. My sleep doctor and his team have been really great with checking in and really listening and trying to get things figured out. My ahi has fallen to just below 5 (last week has averaged 4.6) and I'm maybe slightly less tired, but that could also be the new depression treatment (TMS aka firing really strong magnetic pulses at my brain to make the Stop Being Depressed Neurons activate). I've just been feeling discouraged and I was wondering if this type of thing has happened to anyone else.
If you've read this far, thank you. I appreciate it. I feel like I've been playing medical whack-a-mole what with all the appointments I've been going to and the painfully slow progress.
New to the forum, but I've been using a CPAP since July. I'd say I'm used to it by now. I have no issues falling asleep with the mask, I rarely rip it off in the middle of the night now, and I haven't really been having issues with leaks either. At the beginning of October, my ahi was averaging about 7 or 8 and I had noticed no improvements in how I was feeling. At that point, I had not had a titration study done because insurance decided to just give me an automatic cpap and see what happened, so my machine was set to 4-20 and usually settled around 12. Anyways, long story short I got a titration study done and they decided 4-6 was the optimal pressure. I'm aware this is like, ridiculously low. But my ahi has lowered to just under 5 and I'm having less central apneas so I guess I'm just weird. (Not that this is news to me.)
The thing is, during the titration study my ahi was 0.2. I had one apnea (central) during the entire 6 hours I was asleep. So when I had the virtual appointment to hear how the study went, they were like "Yay! Everything is fixed now!" And then I was like, okay but in the two nights since then I've been using the exact same settings as in the lab and my ahi has averaged 5.23, which is better than before but is also significantly different than 0.2 and everything is not fixed and I'm still tired. Anyways, after the person I was talking to consulted 3 different people we decided that I was "complicated" and I decided to schedule another appointment in four weeks (which is coming up soon) so that we'd have more data to look at.
I'm not really looking for advice, but if anyone has any thoughts I'd love to hear them. My sleep doctor and his team have been really great with checking in and really listening and trying to get things figured out. My ahi has fallen to just below 5 (last week has averaged 4.6) and I'm maybe slightly less tired, but that could also be the new depression treatment (TMS aka firing really strong magnetic pulses at my brain to make the Stop Being Depressed Neurons activate). I've just been feeling discouraged and I was wondering if this type of thing has happened to anyone else.
If you've read this far, thank you. I appreciate it. I feel like I've been playing medical whack-a-mole what with all the appointments I've been going to and the painfully slow progress.
