RE: Thirteen years of CPAP - now failing again. [Central apnea]
Sleeprider: "You NEED to talk to both your Cardiac doctor and your Sleep doctor tomorrow!!! The zoomed views did what I was hoping they would not do. They are showing fairly classic CSR. This is one of the indicators for CHF. Treating cardiac issues is beyond our scope."
Just in case it is useful, I wanted to mention that CSR means "Cheyne-Stokes Respiration" and CHF means "Congestive Heart Failure." I hope you will get in to see your doctors tomorrow, taking your laptop with you so you can show them the flow patterns for the areas marked in green as periodic breathing. This urgently needs their attention.
RE: Thirteen years of CPAP - now failing again. [Central apnea]
Though I suspect Sleeprider would say something similar, you are quoting me.
RE: Thirteen years of CPAP - now failing again. [Central apnea]
Oh, so sorry, Bonjour!
RE: Thirteen years of CPAP - now failing again. [Central apnea]
I just want to jump in and say that it doesn’t matter who gets credit (so to speak).
I actually gave the same advice back in post #5, but I’m sure that I and others don’t do this for praise of any sort, or to be quoted. We are here just to help one another and give whatever advice and knowledge we have and hope it will be beneficial.
And in the end, all I care about is that tykelmice takes the advice seriously and sees a cardiologist.
RE: Thirteen years of CPAP - now failing again. [Central apnea]
My brain is really scrambled today. I can't manipulate Oscar to show six variables. But I can tell you what meds I am taking. The only pill I take is an antidepressant (Lexapro). I have Glaucoma so I take eyedrops for that. I have allergies to trees, weeds and mold. Again, I take allergy shots, nasal steroid spray and antihistamine spray. I have a left parietal brain tumor which is not growing and is considered benign.
My blood pressure is 120/70 and during the day my oxygenation is 97-98%. I live at an elevation of 4800' and lived for 5 years at 9300'. I exercise regularly and do a daily walk (but in this hot weather I may miss a day or two). Within the past year I've had an echocardiogram and I will review that again with my PCP. I will be tested for Hypoglycemia soon. And finally I have esophageal spasms and should be taking an antacid. My weight is about right for my height.
RE: Thirteen years of CPAP - now failing again. [Central apnea]
Your altitude is low but would impact a small percentage of people. This is a possible cause of your Central Apnea. 6000 ft is considered to be the starting altitude for altitude-induced central apnea. The left parietal brain tumor is not a cause, wrong part of the brain.
Still feel the need to clear with your doctors, but not as concerned as I was.
Waiting to see the next set of charts to see where to go.
RE: Thirteen years of CPAP - now failing again. [Central apnea]
Hi Tykelmice,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
I wish you good luckk In getting the proper machine, (whitch is the Resmed Aircurve 10 A S V.) (Adapt Serbo Ventalater.) for treating mixed apnea.
I hope your PCP is the type that listens to you so your fight will be relatively easy.
trish6hundred
RE: Thirteen years of CPAP - now failing again. [Central apnea]
Typed up a message to you and was fixing a couple of mistakes. Wanted to indent a paragraph and pressed TAB. Boom, message gone and I'm in a review of this thread. Now I know. I set up a pre-2007 Remstar five button cpap to start with a pressure of six and a maximum of 6.0. It does not have a SD chip, so I'll know if it worked only by how I feel. If I feel better, I will be brave enough to try it on my autopap where I can record the titration.
RE: Thirteen years of CPAP - now failing again. [Central apnea]
Tykelmice, you have central apnea, and no real indication of obstruction at your very low pressures. I agree with Bonjour's assessment that the periodic breathing is typical of Cheyne-Stokes Respiration, which is sometimes a comorbidity of congestive heart failure; however, I have seen this pattern in healthy individuals with central apnea. I think our mutual objective is to get you into therapy that is comfortable and effective. CPAP cannot treat the types of events that we are seeing here, so a change requires a doctor's order. If your doctor is familiar with central and complex apnea, and the use of adaptive servo ventilation (ASV) in its treatment, he will certainly order an evaluation of your heart health with a focus on determining your left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) to evaluate your suitability for ASV therapy.
I think it's time to provide some of this data to your physician with the request that he treat or refer you for ASV therapy since CPAP is clearly ineffective. However he decides to proceed, we can help you to navigate the process and understand some of the technical stuff, but obviously we can't do it for you. I hope you will ask your doctor if he is comfortable working on this problem or feels better making a referral. Either way, you should make a move sooner than later for your own well-being.
RE: Thirteen years of CPAP - now failing again. [Central apnea]
I have an appointment with my PCP on Wednesday the 28th. I'm pretty sure he will refer me to a sleep specialist. That whole process will take a month and the specialist will order a sleep study which the last time I had one was another six weeks in the future. That would put the sleep study in October/November. So in the meantime I must experiment.
I really what the Apnea Board is doing to help me. Thanks.
