Need Some Urgent Advice

[Lucid]

Hi, Doug

I have to sleep because of arthritis in my hips.  I put a soft cushion under my knees; otherwise, my knees tend to bend backwards slightly, which doesn't feel good.  

I notice that removing or changing the height of the pillow under my knees can change the angle of my neck, and I need to keep my neck in the "rescue position" in order to breathe freely.  In this position, the head is tilted back very slightly to open up the throat.  Of course, this depends on getting the pillow height and position right, too.  

You often see recommendations to use a wedge under your upper body to prevent acid reflux, but I find that tilts my head forward, so no go.

Thank God I was able to maintain an adequate neck/head position without a soft cervical collar, because the ones I tried hurt the back of my neck, since I sleep on my back. I think there was one that was thin enough in back but it wasn't tall enough.  

Long story short, I definitely think changing the angle of your legs would have changed your neck position and could have led to positional apnea.  

I agree with DaveSkvn on checking the new machine carefully, since your problems may have started when you switched machines.

Good luck and please let us know what works best in the end!

[mdmarmd]

DISAPPOINTED.

My improvement seems to be short lived.  The last two night indicate that the difficulty with high AHIs again.  It still must be the return of positional apnea and I won't receive the Coreflex collar for a few more days. Hopefully this will remedy this. I will also initiate the EPR.  However, with these events, I don't actually feel that different in the morning, but I think I will get a recording oximeter since that will be the best indicator of clinically significant hypoxemia.  

Can someone recommend a good recording oximeter to get.  There seem to be so many on the market making it hard to choose.  Years ago, when I was still in practice I bought two Contec wrist/finger recording oximeters so I could do a screening of patients I suspected might have OSA. I did this because back then there was some resistance by PMDs to order testing.  These units worked but eventually the non-replacable batteries got to weak that you coudn't read the display. So, I don't want do get a dud. I do like that many connect to the cellphones now so you don't have to rely on their own display and can use the phone app to manage the processing.

Any recommendation would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Doug