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+--- Thread: [Symptoms] Home test clears me, but oxygen sat levels are LOW. Please help. Scared. (/Thread-Symptoms-Home-test-clears-me-but-oxygen-sat-levels-are-LOW-Please-help-Scared)
Home test clears me, but oxygen sat levels are LOW. Please help. Scared. - JVinNE - 01-13-2015
Hello, I'm new to this forum. I'm a 47 year old woman, and I've had some Apnealike issues for a couple of years.
I just did a ResMed in home test. My Apneas were 17 in 7 hours of testing time, and I had 2 Hypos. I snored 156 times, but the thing I am most frightened of is my low pulse ox reading of 80%. Average was 95%, but on my home pulse ox, which I purchased from a medical supply store; that has an alarm on it, and a wristwatch and rubber fingertip sensor, I often wake up startled with readings of 71, and sometimes even dipping down into the 60s. My doctor says I don't have Sleep Apnea significant enough to require a CPAP, but how can they say that with such low oxygen levels?
Please help. I'm so scared, and I won't sleep without my own ox on, at least until I can get another doctor to recommend me to an overnight study.
Thank you.
RE: Home test clears me, but oxygen sat levels are LOW. Please help. Scared. - Crimson Nape - 01-13-2015
Welcome to the forum!
What software are you using to read your O2 levels? If it is a strip chart? Is it showing these low levels as a spike or more like a top hat? If they are spikes, then that can be caused from moving or hitting the probe.
RE: Home test clears me, but oxygen sat levels are LOW. Please help. Scared. - JVinNE - 01-13-2015
(01-13-2015, 06:37 PM)sgearhart Wrote: Welcome to the forum!
What software are you using to read your O2 levels? If it is a strip chart? Is it showing these low levels as a spike or more like a top hat? If they are spikes, then that can be caused from moving or hitting the probe.
I wake up from the alarm and see the number right on the screen; talking about my own ox, not the one from the ResMed study.
The one I use at home is Acc U Rate® CMS 50F PLUS Wrist Pulse Oximeter (Ver 3.7) with SnugFit probe. I can't tell if it is a spike or a top hat. Please help me to understand this. I am thankful you have responded, as this is pretty scary for me.
RE: Home test clears me, but oxygen sat levels are LOW. Please help. Scared. - retired_guy - 01-13-2015
Stay the course. One night of home testing may not be telling the whole story. Talk to your doc about your fears with the low saturation numbers. If he doesn't feel you are a candidate for cpap, then he needs to refer you to someone that can address your o2 levels appropriately.
I have "severe" (they keep calling it that) emphysema, and my o2 levels can get a little dicey once in awhile. But I have found that with CPAP my numbers perk along all night in the 92-94 range just fine. So even if I didn't have any apnea events, and to be sure I don't have many, I would continue to use the cpap at night. During the day when I feel crummy I can take other action if need be.
Also, there have been some nifty studies that show icu patients with really nasty breathing issues can often do better if placed on straight cpap rather than oxygen.
In the meantime, don't be scared. Do be proactive. For instance take steps to sleep on you side, not your back. Be sure the head of your bed is elevated some. ....and use your oximeter, writing down your results to put in front of the doc.
RE: Home test clears me, but oxygen sat levels are LOW. Please help. Scared. - quiescence at last - 01-13-2015
I have the same model, and you can record the whole night and then upload it into the supplied SPO2 Assistant software, 'gear and I will help you. What I have yet to figure out is whether I can record, and have the alarm set at the same time.
Anyway, did you load the software disk onto a computer?
RE: Home test clears me, but oxygen sat levels are LOW. Please help. Scared. - JVinNE - 01-13-2015
(01-13-2015, 06:46 PM)retired_guy Wrote: Stay the course. One night of home testing may not be telling the whole story. Talk to your doc about your fears with the low saturation numbers. If he doesn't feel you are a candidate for cpap, then he needs to refer you to someone that can address your o2 levels appropriately.
I have "severe" (they keep calling it that) emphysema, and my o2 levels can get a little dicey once in awhile. But I have found that with CPAP my numbers perk along all night in the 92-94 range just fine. So even if I didn't have any apnea events, and to be sure I don't have many, I would continue to use the cpap at night. During the day when I feel crummy I can take other action if need be.
Also, there have been some nifty studies that show icu patients with really nasty breathing issues can often do better if placed on straight cpap rather than oxygen.
In the meantime, don't be scared. Do be proactive. For instance take steps to sleep on you side, not your back. Be sure the head of your bed is elevated some. ....and use your oximeter, writing down your results to put in front of the doc.
I admit it, I am a bit scared, and I will continue to use my own ox, but I don't know if I can record and have the alarm on at the same time, and honestly, that alarm means so much more to me. The other night, when I was falling asleep, I got woken up several times by it, and one of the readings was 71. I cannot imagine why my doctor did not recommend a CPAP with oxygen that low, and by the way, my doctor is NOT the nicest guy. I went to his office today to pick up the report from the sleep center, and he would not even talk with me for 5 minutes. He didn't even have any patients at the time. It's sad, and fairly obvious to me that he doesn't really care about me.
PS. I never sleep on my back, always on my side, and if I sleep on my tummy, I make sure I'm propped up well and my airway is not in the pillow.
RE: Home test clears me, but oxygen sat levels are LOW. Please help. Scared. - quiescence at last - 01-13-2015
I will test in an hour or so, to see if we can record at the same time as the alarm is on.
RE: Home test clears me, but oxygen sat levels are LOW. Please help. Scared. - JVinNE - 01-13-2015
(01-13-2015, 06:49 PM)quiescence at last Wrote: I have the same model, and you can record the whole night and then upload it into the supplied SPO2 Assistant software, 'gear and I will help you. What I have yet to figure out is whether I can record, and have the alarm set at the same time.
Anyway, did you load the software disk onto a computer?
Thank you so much. You are a sweetheart to help me like this. I haven't loaded the software yet, but I will do so. I just need to find out if I can run the recorder and the alarm at the same time. By the way, I don't know if I before mentioned this, but I am currently on Augmentin for Bronchitis, and I also take a low dose of Klonopin (but trying to taper down from my .5 a day,) and I almost never take it right before bed, because I know it can affect breathing and slow it down.
Here is the result of my report from ResMed, in case you are interested in checking it out:
Device: ApneaLinkAir
Recording with oxygen eval: 8:47 PM to 4:47 AM
Events Index: AHI: 2.4 Apnea: 2.2 Hypoapnea: 0.3
Events totals: Apnea 17 Hypoapnea: 2
Apnea Index: Obstructive: 0.1 Central:2.1 (they said this may have been due to movement or something akin.) Mixed: 0 Unclassified: 0
C Stokes resp: 0
Oxygen Desaturation: ODI: 3.0 Total: 23
Oxygen Desaturation percentage: Baseline - 98 Avg - 95 Lowest - 80
Oxygen saturation time percentage: 90%sat: 6, 85%sat 4, 80%sat 0
88%sat 5, 88% time - hr 0:23
Breaths total: 6566 Avg min: 14.1 Snores: 156
Pulse bpm: Min: 44 Avg: 78
Max: 237 (he said this was likely a mistake or happened when I moved or shoved the machine, as that likely would have woken me up.
(01-13-2015, 07:34 PM)quiescence at last Wrote: I will test in an hour or so, to see if we can record at the same time as the alarm is on.
Thank you, kindly.
You rock. 
RE: Home test clears me, but oxygen sat levels are LOW. Please help. Scared. - quiescence at last - 01-13-2015
yep . it works. do alarm and do record. I also downloaded it to the computer and viewed it. hurray it works.
remember the oximeter will delete the previous recording if you start recording again.
please go take a 20 minute nap with the alarm set and record it. we'll get you set for the night.
QAL
RE: Home test clears me, but oxygen sat levels are LOW. Please help. Scared. - trish6hundred - 01-13-2015
Hi ConfusedInRI,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
I'm sorry to hear that your doc doesn't seem to care about you. Unfortunately, that's not uncommon. Maybe you could try to find another one if you don't get any better results.
Hang in there for more suggestions and much success to you.