91% oxygen

[goodonya]

Thanks all. I am listening here. The long drawn out recovery from a nights sleep has been a big part of the mystery for me. I just woke up with 2.6 hours sleep and O AHI. I woke up twice with the mask off after being conscious enough both times I put it on to do a good job of planting it on there with no leaks.
I did get a recommendation for a GP with a good reputation yesterday.
It will be a few days till my first appointment. I got right down there and filled out the paperwork and met some staff.
I am going to try the e-mail load up of Sleepyhead. I hope I can get some more sleep here this morning.
My daytime o2 has been in the 94 to 97 range. From what you are saying here I am doing pretty good. I am going with the get it all in one place with a doctor advice.

[justMongo]

People with long term untreated OSA may develop Atelectasis. Collapse of the air sacs in the lungs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atelectasis
(BTW -- this article explains why breathing high levels of O2 is undesirable.)
PAP can recruit some of these sacs back into being useful.

Another factor for lower PSAO2 is central obesity. Belly fat gets in the way of the diaphragm dropping down to breath.
It's called Obesity hypoventilation syndrome (also known as Pickwickian syndrome after a Dickens' character.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickwickian_syndrome

[goodonya]

When I sleep with my girlfriend without the machine what she has learned is that I just gently stop breathing. I am breathing along in a regular way and just stop and stay stopped until she is wide awake and panicking. She used to shake me into breathing again.

I would not do(according to her) what I see described in the literature for Sleep Apnea. No big inhale or gasp or any of that. Just gently start breathing again.

She has learned that all she has to do is just put her hand on my shoulder and I start breathing again. No big shake just a full hand touch. I of course am unconscious through all of this.

Mostly I am wearing the mask. The whole breathing machine process I know is a a coordination of stuff. My sense of it from the beginning is that for me it is massive overkill for regulating my breathing. There is a need for some back pressure when I am wearing the mask but the pressures generated by sleep study feel to me to be about ten thousand times too much. After four years of steady trying and achieving compliance most of the time I am still not anywhere near the kind of sleep I used to get.

I do have a lot of throat clearing going on and am hoarse talking by midday. I am often wheezy. I had asthma as a kid and pushed myself by cross country running and endurance training for most of my life. I am out of shape now because I do not recover from daytime exertions in my sleep and end up in a lot of pain. Still with that I am not packing any kind of big belly.

[justMongo]

Ah, you have an ASV machine. That's used by people with Central apnea -- those who do not initiate a breath on their own. Like you describe above. That's why you need the machine; and should always use it.

[Peter_C]

Thanks Peter......

What was that you said?

Huh? When?

What was the question?

[Buckeyedog]

When I sleep with my girlfriend without the machine what she has learned is that I just gently stop breathing. I am breathing along in a regular way and just stop and stay stopped until she is wide awake and panicking. She used to shake me into breathing again.

I would not do(according to her) what I see described in the literature for Sleep Apnea. No big inhale or gasp or any of that. Just gently start breathing again.

She has learned that all she has to do is just put her hand on my shoulder and I start breathing again. No big shake just a full hand touch. I of course am unconscious through all of this.

Mostly I am wearing the mask. The whole breathing machine process I know is a a coordination of stuff. My sense of it from the beginning is that for me it is massive overkill for regulating my breathing. There is a need for some back pressure when I am wearing the mask but the pressures generated by sleep study feel to me to be about ten thousand times too much. After four years of steady trying and achieving compliance most of the time I am still not anywhere near the kind of sleep I used to get.

I do have a lot of throat clearing going on and am hoarse talking by midday. I am often wheezy. I had asthma as a kid and pushed myself by cross country running and endurance training for most of my life. I am out of shape now because I do not recover from daytime exertions in my sleep and end up in a lot of pain. Still with that I am not packing any kind of big belly.

Yeah, sounds like you have central apnea to me. This is what I have as well. Don't think weight loss or anything like that can help us. Seems like you have the right machine as Mongo pointed out. Just need to make sure it's set up for your situation.

[Whitewabit]

are you in auto mode on your machine or just ASV ?

Reason I am asking is your pressure is much higher then mine. My EPAP is 4, and Min PS is 4 and Max PS is 8 mine is set to the ASV mode. and am wondering why.

I do the same thing .. just slowly start breathing again and all my wife has to do is touch me anywhere. Then she is unable to sleep listening for me to stop again.

AHI was .81 last night, 2.45 the night before .. am a new user less then a month.

[Whitewabit]

I have a Pulse Oximeter that I use to check my O2 levels because I have Asthma and my O2 levels drop under exertion to 88% and lower. I walk about 2+ miles in 50-60 minutes 6 days a week, where I walk has a 8% grade 1/2 of the way so I get a good workout with my legs and breathing walking at the pace I do. I have a prescription for 2 liter's of O2 while exercising. and it was made very clear that using O2 when not needed can cause a lot of harm and reduce your life expectancy ! That I was only to use my O2 under the conditions prescribed and not any other time. I find that there are times I don't even use it while walking if my pace is at my wife slower walking pace or use it at 1 or 1.5 liter's, as long as my O2 level stays above 93% while using it .

My O2 levels at rest are 93-95% but have realized that while using my Resmed my O2 levels go up to 96-98% at night while using the machine. Are others realizing an increase in O2 levels also?? My oximeter records but its not able to down load the information so just use it as a spot check, putting it on my finger then falling asleep with it on .. records till I knock it off or take it off in my sleep .

[retired_guy]

During the day, just sitting around working on the computer or whatever, my O2 stays around 93-94. When I get up and move around I can have problems on some days, not so much on others, but typically the O2 will fall to around 89. On a not so great day, such as yesterday when I was washing the dinner dishes, it dropped to 85. That's sit down and take a break time.

But at night, with my handy dandy cpap machine cranking along, I stay at 93-94 as far as I know all the time. Actually breathing well all night has been one of the happy effects of therapy for me.

[Peter_C]

I have had multiple PEs, multiple times, which creates 'scars' where the clots were. Because of this, my O2 numbers are not the greatest. I am an ex-smoker, but have no other pulmonary issues as of my testing last year.

At rest during the day, my oximeter shows 92-94. During exercise (fat guy, slowly becoming an ex-couch-potato) I drop into the high 80s, but recover under one minute. At night I bounce around 91-92, usually with 1-4 minutes under 88%.

I also had an anemia issue last DEC (hospital for a refill, then iron pills for 2 months) which caused all my numbers to drop 2-3 points.

It IS perfectly normal for regular people to drop to the mid 90s at night. Staying at or below 90 most of the night, or a lot of time (talking 60+ minutes) below 88% during a night is time to see the Doc (what I've been told by all my various Docs...