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Fixed my leaky mask
#11
RE: Fixed my leaky mask
Yup! You'll like it.

Come over to the Breeze side, young Jedi.
PaulaO

Take a deep breath and count to zen.




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#12
RE: Fixed my leaky mask
(01-31-2013, 11:56 AM)PaulaO2 Wrote:
Quote:Get those oximeter sessions in kids.
It's like having a sentry watching over the therapy full time.
When ANYTHING bad happens it shows up there first.

Actually, Shatzi, that would be untrue.

Some people's blood O2 does not dip very far due to higher AHI. Some people's blood O2 drops much further than the normal person.

I am one of those people. With the CPAP, even with high AHI and long events, my blood O2 does not drop very much. It stays above 90%. Without the CPAP, it drops quite low, down to 70%. I used one occasionally when I had the S9 Escape, especially when I was on a new medication or wasn't sleeping well.

An oximeter is a simple tool that could be helpful in determining how a patient is doing and to rule out a secondary (or primary) lung condition. It is not something that is truly useful to use every night. I would much rather encourage someone to save their pennies and get a data capable machine than to continually insist an oximeter is a vital and necessary part of treatment.


Perhaps I oversimplify a bit. Smile
I feel the data capable CPAP and oximeter complement each other nicely though.
The whole big picture *really is* about maintaining your O2 saturation during sleep. If you are staying above 90% then you are in the golden range regardless of your AHI's. If the CPAP is writing you up for a lot of those, it *might* be a case of UARS / shallow breathing or somesuch other nonsense.
Centrals will still show up as a 10%+ drop in O2 though I think not everyone runs into them.
In this light the 'clear airway' apneas (as detected by pressure & air flow sensors) seem to be a bit of a mystery....
Soon as I can save up for an S9 I will test my hypothesis. Smile
Cheers!

=^.^=
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#13
RE: Fixed my leaky mask
Shastzi, you are not far off, and I can give you a good example - because I was an old fashioned scuba diver (back when we had those big double hose regulators) I got into the habit of skip breathing, something I continued to do to this day. Because of that, I Had some trouble at first adjusting to a CPAP device because it naturally associated my long pauses in breathing with apnoea and tried to force air into my nose, often waking me up, yet the oxymeter (sorry we spell it differently over here) showed that I consistently stayed well above 90% sO2 sats. Why? because skip breathing keeps the blood well saturated but spares the oxygen tank when you're diving. You don't need to with modern regulators, but we did back then. Using the combined data, I was able to, with the help of the hospital technician, adjust so that the machine could take it into account. So monitoring your sO2 sats is not the worst idea in the world at all. And yes, the machines, unless so adjusted,will read shallow breathing and other forms of negative feedback as an incident. They are not yet THAT smart or sensitive. It is true that the magic 90% mark is to some extent what it is all about. Sleep deprivation is indeed a problem, but the main bit is still oxygen deprivation, and that is the killer. The sleep deprivation fix is a knock on effect of keeping the blood oxygenated at night. No low O2, so no wake-ups.
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#14
RE: Fixed my leaky mask
(01-31-2013, 10:08 AM)Shastzi Wrote: Get those oximeter sessions in kids.
It's like having a sentry watching over the therapy full time.
When ANYTHING bad happens it shows up there first.

Wink

Many people with very harmful apnea will wake up enough to start breathing again before their O2 level drops enough to show up. They will suffer health effects due to lack of quality sleep, but will never show up on an oximeter.

An oximeter may give you an indication that something bad is going on, but bad things can happen that won't ever show up on an oximeter.
Get the free OSCAR CPAP software here.
Useful links.
Click here for information on the main alternative to CPAP.
If it's midnight and a DME tells you it's dark outside, go and check it yourself.
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#15
RE: Fixed my leaky mask
Mmmhmm. I know there are even some bad oximeters out there. (20$ Walmart variety)
I checked with a crude test.
I hold my breath a minute and see if I get a 3-5 point drop in saturation. Because of the slight lag in blood absorption it takes a 2-3 seconds of deep breathing to recover from that. ( *GASP!!!* (pant-pant-pant!!) )
So I know that if I get that 3-5 point drop while awake, but I am falling below 75% at night , I KNOW I am in deep crap...
The Zeo also shows I am getting some good nap time in since it uses the brainwave monitoring to detect waking events.
I am hoping to get enough back from the taxman this year to cover the cost of an S9 so I can verify it all with "the rest of the picture".

Wink




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