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Worried about Sleep Study Results
#11
RE: Worried about Sleep Study Results
(09-17-2016, 06:29 PM)jakthebomb Wrote: I just want relief from whatever is causing my problem. I don't care if I have to use a CPAP. I rather they find what it is than tell me there's nothing wrong.

Thanks,
Catherine

Hi Catherine,

welcome to the forum.

I can relate to feeling lousy and searching for the answer for a long time. Like many others, I also was pretty sure I didn't sleep enough in the lab to be useful. But it was enough.

My sleep lab tech did share that I had severe apnea, but I guess it depends on the people and protocols of the lab you use.

I walked away the morning after my study with a printout of the study report. I didn't know much about the details in it except it indicated an AHI number that I could go google to learn more about it.

I mention this because you might be able to go to the sleep lab during the day (if they have daytime hours to see patients). Go there in person and request a printout of your sleep study from the front desk. Just tell them you need it, don't say the lab tech refused to tell you. A simple matter of fact request to a busy admin person will probably get you the report in the time it takes to look you up and press the print button.

Beyond that, expect to hear from your doctor soon with results. And if the results indicate you do NOT have sleep apnea, don't torture yourself with the idea that the test was bogus, you didn't sleep long enough, or any other ghost story to keep yourself awake at night.

Your symptoms sure sound like a lot of ours do, but if it comes back you don't have sleep apnea, then just don't let the doc office get off the phone without asking what do we do next. What's most important is you and your doc are on the hunt for the source of your feeling so terrible. If this wasn't it, then keep looking and don't give up.

Saldus Miegas

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#12
RE: Worried about Sleep Study Results
Some people like my FIL did not want to have sleep apnea, this 60 events an hour would have been a great comment for him because he "knew" it was not that bad. The ONLY number I have ever heard of is 5 events an hour, below which you are considered treated. I had 29, my FIL had 39 Smile.

My last sleep test my Doctor told me that I did not sleep at all, all night-welcome to my world- was my answer. Doing fine now on CPAP.

The lab should never give out results, they are not Doctors. Any kind of lab will not give out results, they do not diagnose-period.

They will however have to write a report and send it to your Doctor for review and then you will need an appointment to find out. Get as much of this setup and happening in as short a time as possible.
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#13
RE: Worried about Sleep Study Results
(09-18-2016, 12:23 PM)SaldusMiegas Wrote:
(09-17-2016, 06:29 PM)jakthebomb Wrote: I just want relief from whatever is causing my problem. I don't care if I have to use a CPAP. I rather they find what it is than tell me there's nothing wrong.

Thanks,
Catherine

Hi Catherine,

welcome to the forum.

I can relate to feeling lousy and searching for the answer for a long time. Like many others, I also was pretty sure I didn't sleep enough in the lab to be useful. But it was enough.

My sleep lab tech did share that I had severe apnea, but I guess it depends on the people and protocols of the lab you use.

I walked away the morning after my study with a printout of the study report. I didn't know much about the details in it except it indicated an AHI number that I could go google to learn more about it.

I mention this because you might be able to go to the sleep lab during the day (if they have daytime hours to see patients). Go there in person and request a printout of your sleep study from the front desk. Just tell them you need it, don't say the lab tech refused to tell you. A simple matter of fact request to a busy admin person will probably get you the report in the time it takes to look you up and press the print button.

Beyond that, expect to hear from your doctor soon with results. And if the results indicate you do NOT have sleep apnea, don't torture yourself with the idea that the test was bogus, you didn't sleep long enough, or any other ghost story to keep yourself awake at night.

Your symptoms sure sound like a lot of ours do, but if it comes back you don't have sleep apnea, then just don't let the doc office get off the phone without asking what do we do next. What's most important is you and your doc are on the hunt for the source of your feeling so terrible. If this wasn't it, then keep looking and don't give up.

Saldus Miegas

My Roommate told me that I do this every night when I sleep. YouTube add this after the dot com /watch?v=qCh7JehFX90 She said "I wish I were lying to you"
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#14
RE: Worried about Sleep Study Results
I am very frustrated, I got my results back and it said "Negative for Sleep Apnea".

I am going to attach the results (I edited my personal info out). Any Ideas? I think this is a false negative.

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#15
RE: Worried about Sleep Study Results
Welcome to the board.

(09-20-2016, 06:10 PM)jakthebomb Wrote: I am very frustrated, I got my results back and it said "Negative for Sleep Apnea".
I am going to attach the results (I edited my personal info out).
No second page? There should be a "findings" summary and an "interpretation" paragraph, no?
Quote:....I think this is a false negative.
Many of us have the opposite thought when diagnosed: false positive. Unfortunately, it's hard to argue with polysomnography, because, the brainwave data are the gold standard for determining stages of sleep, so events during arousal are not counted. But check whether the findings summary remarks on them.

It's a tough situation. Those of us who were diagnosed and getting therapy can at least examine our data for clues as to why we feel lousy when the AHI is "controlled." (I'm in that boat.) In your case, you'll need to press the doc hard to investigate non-OSA causes of the poor sleep.

-Ron

We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
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#16
RE: Worried about Sleep Study Results
Sorry, the attachments limit is soooooooo low.

-Results-
POLYSOMNOGRAM IMPRESSIONS: Raw data reviewed, indicated the following:
1. Negative for Sleep Apnea. Apnea/Hypopnea Index was only 3.5 events per hour of sleep. Oxygen saturation was essentially maintained above 88.0% throughout study.
2. Supine AHI was 7.0. Non-Supine AHI was 1.7. REM AHI was 0.0,
3. Mild to Moderate Intermittent snoring.
4. Periodic limb movements were noted with a PLM Index of 16.8, not associated with significant arousals.
5. Sleep efficiency was decreased at 66.7%. REM sleep was decreased although obtained in supine position.
6. Cardiac rhythm was sinus with intermittent PVCs,

RECOMMENDATIONS:
1. Clinical correlation is advised regarding Periodic Limb Movements.
2. Follow up with the referring physician, Dr. Girish Daulat for further management.
3. If clinical suspicion for sleep apnea is high, a repeat polysomnography may be considered.
4. Should you have any questions pertaining to this study, please feel free to contact us,
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#17
RE: Worried about Sleep Study Results
Thx. I see the other thread, and think you've got some good advice there. Let's hope the doc agrees to a machine. Make sure s/he acknowledges this recommendation:

Quote:3. If clinical suspicion for sleep apnea is high, a repeat polysomnography may be considered.
That's important and appears quite applicable.

Sorry you're in this situation. Wishing you better health very soon.

-Ron
We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
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#18
RE: Worried about Sleep Study Results
(09-20-2016, 10:37 PM)rkl122 Wrote: Thx. I see the other thread, and think you've got some good advice there. Let's hope the doc agrees to a machine. Make sure s/he acknowledges this recommendation:

Quote:3. If clinical suspicion for sleep apnea is high, a repeat polysomnography may be considered.
That's important and appears quite applicable.

Sorry you're in this situation. Wishing you better health very soon.

-Ron

I really don't want to do another Polysomnography. In all honesty, it would be far cheaper for my doctor to just do a trial run with a APAP machine.

Sleep Studies suck, I hate being watched and monitored. This was a huge part of why I had a hard time falling asleep. I am very particular in terms of my sleep environment. However, when I am home and in my nice Tempurpedic bed, I snore and struggle breathing. This has been observed by my roommate.
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#19
RE: Worried about Sleep Study Results
Hi Catherine,

With your results and what your room mate has told you, I would probably ask my primary doctor if s/he would give me a 1-2 month trial on a Auto CPAP machine if your insurance will allow it.

Make it a rental so if it doesn't work out you aren't out a lot of money. If it helps, then get a permanent machine. Make sure the experimental machine you get is an automatic pressure and data-capable machine so you can let the machine automatically titrate you and so you can review the data in sleepyhead to measure improvement.

Here's why I would do that:

I'm assuming you have already checked at least some other of the usual suspects when people experience fatigue and general malaise, like blood work that would indicate systemic conditions since there are lots of things that could result in these similar symptoms. But if a few others are already ruled out then maybe worth spending a little time exploring this potential.

I am not a clinician but a few things look interesting about your report. It looks like you had an AHI of 7 in the supine position and almost none when sleeping on your side, averaging out to not indicate sleep apnea. I wonder if you sleep on your back or side. If back, then that's when you had more events (like most people do by the way). Also there were a lot of arousals, as you woke up 32 times. To a layman it seems like every time you got to a deeper sleep state you were waking up or running into events. The report also mentions snoring and leg movement. Finally, it says if sleep apnea is still suspected, to redo the sleep study. Curious way to end a report.

So with all that in mind, I would ask my doc if he was willing to give CPAP a try.

Nothing to lose, and a lot to gain. Rather than redoing the sleep study in the lab, you could simply treat and see if it helps. My spouse had a similar situation with ambiguous study report and the doc said let's just do it. Maybe yours would do similar if you ask.

Also be aware that it's possible that sleep apnea is not what's causing you to feel miserable, and you have a clinical test report which suggests precisely that. So CPAP may be a goose chase, and if it is, then as soon as you make that determination you would need to get off this CPAP kick and get on with continuing your search for the underlying cause so you can feel better.

But at this point if it were me in your shoes I would take the chance and ask my doc to give CPAP therapy an opportunity to play out one way or the other. And if my doc whom I trust and who knows me looks at the report and says no way, then I would set CPAP aside, follow his advice, and ask what we do next.

In any case by the end of that next discussion we would have agreed upon a way ahead whether it was to try CPAP or something else specific to rule out a different cause, and eventually figure this out.

Saldus Miegas
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#20
RE: Worried about Sleep Study Results
(09-20-2016, 11:05 PM)SaldusMiegas Wrote: Hi Catherine,

With your results and what your room mate has told you, I would probably ask my primary doctor if s/he would give me a 1-2 month trial on a Auto CPAP machine if your insurance will allow it.

Make it a rental so if it doesn't work out you aren't out a lot of money. If it helps, then get a permanent machine. Make sure the experimental machine you get is an automatic pressure and data-capable machine so you can let the machine automatically titrate you and so you can review the data in sleepyhead to measure improvement.

Here's why I would do that:

I'm assuming you have already checked at least some other of the usual suspects when people experience fatigue and general malaise, like blood work that would indicate systemic conditions since there are lots of things that could result in these similar symptoms. But if a few others are already ruled out then maybe worth spending a little time exploring this potential.

I am not a clinician but a few things look interesting about your report. It looks like you had an AHI of 7 in the supine position and almost none when sleeping on your side, averaging out to not indicate sleep apnea. I wonder if you sleep on your back or side. If back, then that's when you had more events (like most people do by the way). Also there were a lot of arousals, as you woke up 32 times. To a layman it seems like every time you got to a deeper sleep state you were waking up or running into events. The report also mentions snoring and leg movement. Finally, it says if sleep apnea is still suspected, to redo the sleep study. Curious way to end a report.

So with all that in mind, I would ask my doc if he was willing to give CPAP a try.

Nothing to lose, and a lot to gain. Rather than redoing the sleep study in the lab, you could simply treat and see if it helps. My spouse had a similar situation with ambiguous study report and the doc said let's just do it. Maybe yours would do similar if you ask.

Also be aware that it's possible that sleep apnea is not what's causing you to feel miserable, and you have a clinical test report which suggests precisely that. So CPAP may be a goose chase, and if it is, then as soon as you make that determination you would need to get off this CPAP kick and get on with continuing your search for the underlying cause so you can feel better.

But at this point if it were me in your shoes I would take the chance and ask my doc to give CPAP therapy an opportunity to play out one way or the other. And if my doc whom I trust and who knows me looks at the report and says no way, then I would set CPAP aside, follow his advice, and ask what we do next.

In any case by the end of that next discussion we would have agreed upon a way ahead whether it was to try CPAP or something else specific to rule out a different cause, and eventually figure this out.

Saldus Miegas

Hi Saldus,

Thanks for taking the time to give me some advice. My latest blood test shows everything being normal. My mother has a lot of conditions that are hereditary. I had my Thyroid and a full blood panel tested and everything looks normal.

I stick to a regular sleep schedule even though I am unemployed. I drive my roommate to work every morning at 7AM. I go to bed at 11PM every night. This is even on her days off.

It looks like you were pushing the idea that I could very well have Sleep Apnea as when I am sleeping on my back I had a higher AHI Index. My roommate noted that I always stop breathing and make snorting sounds when on my back. This is why I linked a YouTube video of someone else having Sleep Apnea. My roommate said I do exactly the same thing as the girl in that video. It is really scary to watch and think "I do that when I sleep?"

I am going to call up my doctor tomorrow and push him to do a CPAP Trial Run. I work in the IT Industry. I am very good at diagnosing computer and tech issues. I feel that the medical field is very similar. In my experience, it is common for issues to go unnoticed during testing. Nothing is foolproof. This is why I think outside the box and look into the unconventional solution. I have been able to resolve some really puzzling issues. I apply this same way of thinking towards my health. My health is very important to me.

One thing that concerns me, Why would they notate AHI events of 15 then say there is nothing wrong?

I don't think one horrible night of testing is enough to paint a picture of what I endure night after night. I read about a Sleep Professional Doctor who feels the same way.

I wanted to quit my study around 1:30AM. The Sleep Study was hell and I never want to do it again.

I will report back what my doctor says,
Thanks again,
Catherine
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