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+--- Thread: Sleep Study Results -- what am I looking at? (/Thread-Sleep-Study-Results-what-am-I-looking-at)
Sleep Study Results -- what am I looking at? - lisa73 - 03-02-2023
Thanks in advance for any help you can provide! I have long covid, and have the fatigue that goes along with it. A cardiologist that I saw suggested a sleep study, and I ended up with an at-home kit from BioSerenity that I wore for two nights. The attached results and a diagnosis of "mild sleep apnea" came back. My insurance at first didn't want to cover a machine because the results weren't bad enough, so my primary doctor who ordered the sleep study gave them a secondary diagnosis of daytime sleepiness. The machine is supposedly on its way, and I'm having second thoughts about it all.
What exactly am I looking at with these results? Hearing words like "mild" and needing an additional diagnosis to get the machine makes me think I don't really need it, and it seems like it has the potential to be a lot of trouble for not much payoff. Which numbers are the ones I should be paying attention to? My husband says I only snore when I have a cold, for what that's worth.
RE: Sleep Study Results -- what am I looking at? - cmpman1974 - 03-02-2023
I would assume your overall health and possibly other medical issues may play a part in the decision too. An 11.2 AHI definitely indicates some sleep apnea. The doctor did not do a titration test to see how you performed with CPAP therapy in the center?
RE: Sleep Study Results -- what am I looking at? - lisa73 - 03-03-2023
That's the thing, the sleep study wasn't done in a center, but consisted of me wearing some sensors (see the picture below) for a couple of nights while I slept in bed at home. The whole experience felt like it was designed to have my insurance pay for a machine rather than to actually examine my sleep.
[attachment=48513]
RE: Sleep Study Results -- what am I looking at? - fly by night - 03-03-2023
Based on your results, I think you snore more than your husband has noticed.
RE: Sleep Study Results -- what am I looking at? - Sleeprider - 03-03-2023
The home sleep tests tend to under-score severity of AHI, and yours is at least mild and perhaps moderate if awake time were to be subtracted. The snoring is significant, and this test also likely underestimates the respiratory disturbance index (RDI) which is disruptive to sleep. CPAP will probably be beneficial, but all of this remote prescribing and home testing does not give me much hope your medical team actually is looking to help much. It will be interesting to hear what mask interface and machine they have selected for you. By far, the Resmed Airsense 10 or 11 Autoset machine is better than others, and it would not surprise me to hear that the machine on the way comes from China.
Try to get information on what machine and mask is being provided. You should have a choice and it's almost always a bad thing when you get the next one off the shelf they maximize profit with. Hopefully it will be something compatible with OSCAR software so we can help you get optimized and resolve any problems.
RE: Sleep Study Results -- what am I looking at? - fly by night - 03-03-2023
Just an encouragement, my numbers were similar to yours on a home sleep test. I snored enough to keep others awake.
I have used a ResMed AirSense 11 autoset for a few weeks. It came with the factory settings, which worked, but have set it closer to my needs using OSCAR software, and guidance from Apnea Board. With the personalized settings, I sleep better.
On CPAP, I don't snore, at all, I sleep better, and I have very few apnea events. My back problems are improving, as the CPAP allows me to sleep on my back, which I couldn't do before. It has greatly improved my life, more than I thought it would.
There were some challenges getting things tweaked, both the equipment and my sleep positioning. But I'm getting there.
Best to you in making your decisions.