02-11-2020, 03:02 PM
Blood oxygen saturation level dipping while I sleep
So, I, if course, have sleep apnea.
I am chronically tired all the time and try to figure out why.
I hate using a cpap. A few years ago, my sleep doc referred me out to an ENT doc to figure out why i have sleep apnea to see if it could be surgically fixed. He stuck a camera up my nose and down my lungs. I was watching the screen with him. Even when i was awake, you could barely see down my lungs. They were almost completely closed off awake. He said, if it's like this while I'm awake, it definitely collapses when I'm asleep. He told me it was my tonsils that's the blockage. I told him I had my tonsils removed as a kid. He said everyone has two sets of tonsils. When you're a kid and have them removed, they generally only remove one. I guess I have tonsils on the back of my tongue and that's the blockage. He submitted to my insurance to have my tonsils removed but my insurance denied the request.
But one other thing, when I was a kid, I was in the hospital a lot. One time while I was there, they were monitoring my blood oxygen levels. They were low. They told me I couldn't go home until I got my oxygen levels up. They had me blowing into that thing where it raises a ball to strengthen my lungs. I got it up so I went home later.
But I've always wondered if I've reverted to breathing shallow and not getting enough oxygen even while awake.
At night, even though I hate the cpap, I use it every night. (I have another doc appt with a different ent doc next week where I'm going to talk to them about inspire to replace the cpap or maybe getting my tonsils removed.... the previous insurance rejection I could've appealed but I didn't. Thinking if they reject it again, I'll appeal this time.)
A few weeks ago, I went to my primary care doctor and talked about how I'm always tired. He checked my blood oxygen level with one of those finger things and it was normal. My doc has me on a lot of meds. One of them is Ritalin. He said I should not be tired on Ritalin. That should be waking me up.
But still wondering about my blood oxygen level, I bought a Garmin Venu smart watch. The watch has the ability to detect my blood oxygen levels constantly. So far, the last few days, it looks like my oxygen levels during the day are normal. But last night while i was sleeping, my Garmin watch shows my oxygen levels dipped into the 80s for about an hour. Why would that happen? The cpap should've kept it up. My cpap is set on auto. The myair app shows my sleeping scores a constant 90-100 range. I'm attaching an image of my last night's sleep from Garmin.
I am chronically tired all the time and try to figure out why.
I hate using a cpap. A few years ago, my sleep doc referred me out to an ENT doc to figure out why i have sleep apnea to see if it could be surgically fixed. He stuck a camera up my nose and down my lungs. I was watching the screen with him. Even when i was awake, you could barely see down my lungs. They were almost completely closed off awake. He said, if it's like this while I'm awake, it definitely collapses when I'm asleep. He told me it was my tonsils that's the blockage. I told him I had my tonsils removed as a kid. He said everyone has two sets of tonsils. When you're a kid and have them removed, they generally only remove one. I guess I have tonsils on the back of my tongue and that's the blockage. He submitted to my insurance to have my tonsils removed but my insurance denied the request.
But one other thing, when I was a kid, I was in the hospital a lot. One time while I was there, they were monitoring my blood oxygen levels. They were low. They told me I couldn't go home until I got my oxygen levels up. They had me blowing into that thing where it raises a ball to strengthen my lungs. I got it up so I went home later.
But I've always wondered if I've reverted to breathing shallow and not getting enough oxygen even while awake.
At night, even though I hate the cpap, I use it every night. (I have another doc appt with a different ent doc next week where I'm going to talk to them about inspire to replace the cpap or maybe getting my tonsils removed.... the previous insurance rejection I could've appealed but I didn't. Thinking if they reject it again, I'll appeal this time.)
A few weeks ago, I went to my primary care doctor and talked about how I'm always tired. He checked my blood oxygen level with one of those finger things and it was normal. My doc has me on a lot of meds. One of them is Ritalin. He said I should not be tired on Ritalin. That should be waking me up.
But still wondering about my blood oxygen level, I bought a Garmin Venu smart watch. The watch has the ability to detect my blood oxygen levels constantly. So far, the last few days, it looks like my oxygen levels during the day are normal. But last night while i was sleeping, my Garmin watch shows my oxygen levels dipped into the 80s for about an hour. Why would that happen? The cpap should've kept it up. My cpap is set on auto. The myair app shows my sleeping scores a constant 90-100 range. I'm attaching an image of my last night's sleep from Garmin.
