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Added Wellvu Ring O2 to the arsenal - Printable Version

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Added Wellvu Ring O2 to the arsenal - bouncer - 04-25-2021

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Have been lurking here for a while. Hope you guys have some advise for me.
My experience with Sleep Apnea has been somewhat uncommon (I think). 

Prologue
  • Diagnosis - Was diagnosed 5 years ago, AHI 6, RDI 14, and was prescribed Resmed A10 in US.
  • Symptoms - loud snoring, day time tiredness, fatigue, brain fog, etc. But I wasn't sure if SA is the culprit or anything else.
  • Took a long time adjusting to the machine. Finally settled on nasal pillows. Started using the machine 95%+ times.
  • But never felt much improvement in the symptoms (had some small improvement). Sometimes, I felt better, but most of the time, I felt like sh*t when waking up. Took 1 hour or more to be able to leave the bed. 
  • Did a self study with Resmed in 2019, in India, and this time AHI was 21. 
  • If I tried to stop using CPAP I couldn't even fall asleep as the tongue would fall back choking m eeven before I could sleep.
  • Did another sleep study in US in 2020. The study went wrong as they messed somethings up but it still confirmed that I have OSA, and must use CPAP. Ruled out other common issues like narcolepsy, positional SA, very small CSA.
With this background, I decided to study my OSA with more data. So I purchased Wellvu Ring O2. It is recommended in this forum and my research indicated that it is close enough to medical grade for my purposes.
Last night, I took my first reading (after some sanity tests on the ring). No CPAP, just Ring O2. This morning, I was only slightly more tired than usual (as I didn't use CPAP). But that was not the biggest surprise.

Surprise


O2 Ring shows that my sleep was very good! I know, SpO2 cannot be used to diagnose SA, but I was expecting that I will have a high number of OSA events which would show a corresponding drop in SpO2. But that is not the case.
So when I put everything together, the only conclusion I can draw is that at least in my case, even though I have mild OSA, it is not accompanied by a drop in SpO2, and even though I do not see a major benefit or relief from symptoms, I must keep using CPAP on blind faith that somehow it must be doing good.
This is fine, but its just a bit demoralizing for my enquiring brain.

Next
I will take a few more measurements with and without CPAP machines. But would like to see what you folks think.


RE: Added Wellvu Ring O2 to the arsenal - SarcasticDave94 - 04-25-2021

You could use OSCAR as Sleepyhead isn't supported. Then post a chart. Looking at the data by those that know how to interpret would help you. SpO2 data is only helpful to a certain degree in predicting Apnea.


RE: Added Wellvu Ring O2 to the arsenal - bouncer - 04-25-2021

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[attachment=31744]

Sure, adding a few screenshots. But please note that my subjective experience doesn't match the AHI reported by the machine.


RE: Added Wellvu Ring O2 to the arsenal - SarcasticDave94 - 04-25-2021

If your not using one yet, your showing some Apnea clusters or AKA positional Apnea. See the cluster of blue ticks from around 0000-0130? Likely your chin is tucking down towards your chest, kinking the airway and creating a restriction that sets up a string of Apnea as seen here. Look at the soft collar and the positional Apnea wiki in my signature.


RE: Added Wellvu Ring O2 to the arsenal - bouncer - 04-25-2021

That's a great insight! I will try a collar and report back.