Started CPAP without diagnosis

[JD123]

I'm a 50yo male who started suspecting I might have sleep apnea a few months ago. The medical run-around took a while, but I finally have an appointment with a sleep specialist next week.

I didn't want to wait so I picked up a CPAP from craigslist and started using a RemStar Pro with C-Flex+ (450P) with an Aloha nasal pillow I bought online. I've gotten into the settings thanks to this board, but not sure what the settings are for this mask or what pressure I should actually use.

I was having morning headaches but I haven't noticed any recently. My sleeping has gotten more regular and I'm less tired overall.

1) How does this look overall?
2) Should I bring my SD card to show my data to my appointment next week? Or, do you think this history would just confuse things?
3) I usually can find at least one periodic breathing episode on most nights
4) Anything else and thanks!
   
month
   
last night

   
a week ago

   
periodic

[jaswilliams]

On the daily charts can you move the pressure graph under the flow graph take a look at the organise your sleepy head data in my signature

[JD123]

   
AFAICT this machine can ramp up and has a "Flex" that reduces pressure when you exhale but doesn't adjust. Pressure is set at 10.5.

[DeepBreathing]

G'day JD123, welcome to Apnea Board.

An AHI under 5.0 is regarded as "treated" so you're doing extremely well so far. There is room for improvement to optimise your settings which will no doubt improve things further. To make the best use of your SleepyHead charts, we really like them formatted in a particular way, as shown here: http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...ganization

Your doctor will no doubt want you to have a diagnostic sleep study to prove that you do in fact have sleep apnea. This is worthwhile doing as it will also check out a whole range of bodily functions (heart etc) at the same time. Not a lot of fun sleeping with 19 probes and electrodes attached to your body but worth the trouble in my view.

Your daily charts are showing a small amount of periodic breathing and some central apneas. You should draw these to the attention of your doctor - I don't think the numbers you are experiencing are any real concern, but they can indicate some underlying issues which need to be eliminated. And yes - I would take your charts to the doctor and let him/her know that you are going to be actively involved in your therapy.

[Ron AKA]

Yes, I would take the SD card with you just in case they can read the data. Not sure how much data that particular machine will keep in the SD card, but anything is better than nothing. I would also take some printouts of what you are getting from SleepyHead.

My initial thoughts are that you probably have at least moderate sleep apnea and it is not going to be easy to keep AHI under 5 consistently with a fixed pressure CPAP. You should do better with a good Auto CPAP like the ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet. But you probably cannot get the process started until you get an official diagnosis. So that should be next. And as DeepBreathing suggested you should talk to your doctor about the periodic breathing, and the overall level of central apnea that you are seeing.

[Mosquitobait]

The doc is going to recommend a sleep study (they all do) and you should check with your insurance what your cost will be. Some insurance companies require a home study before they will pay for a lab study, and some require you to use an in-network sleep lab (sometimes not even related to your doctor). If you have a high deductible that you can't really afford, then you can just tell the doc it isn't happening this year, so let's work with what the machine is telling you. BRING your SD card and some of those printouts.

If you do have a sleep study, you need to stop using your Craigslist machine a couple of days before the study to get the best results.

I had lots of delays to get my sleep study and had reached a point that I could no longer drive, so bought a used unit. It so obviously helped, but it turned out that sleep apnea was not my main problem. At the time though, Medicare did not pay for home studies, so I guess that was good for me.

[JD123]

Saw the sleep specialist today. He looked over my data and said, "Looks like you've diagnosed yourself...And you've treated yourself...That's awesome!" We are still doing a sleep test, and he said for me to stop CPAP for a few days before hand. If there's anything unusual, I'll post again.

Thanks all for the great advice and letting me know exactly what to expect!

[gwc2795]

looking forward to hearing back from you.

[DreamBreather]

Saw the sleep specialist today. He looked over my data and said, "Looks like you've diagnosed yourself...And you've treated yourself...That's awesome!" We are still doing a sleep test, and he said for me to stop CPAP for a few days before hand. If there's anything unusual, I'll post again.

Thanks all for the great advice and letting me know exactly what to expect!

    Please keep us posted! Great job btw!!

[JD123]

Short update: sleeping great on 10.0 cm CPAP and 2L oxygen

Long version: My sleep study showed low oxygen, but 2.9 on AHI. Arousal index was 20.6. Dr had me try just oxygen and no CPAP. My oxygen saturation numbers were good, but I didn't feel like I was getting good sleep. We added the CPAP back in with the O2. My saturation and AHI both look good and I feel like I'm getting a good night's sleep using both. Heart rate gets down in the 50s but Dr said not to worry about it. We may try lowering the O2 to 1 L at some point. I'm doing another at home oximetry test tonight and I expect everything to be fine. Thanks everyone for your help.