RE: How Many Minutes Below 90% Without CPAP Are Acceptable?
FWIW I know I sound like a Fisher & Paykel mask salesman, but look up the Vitera or Simplus. I side sleep with a normal pillow and these masks aren't upset by it. They have a bellows feature on the cushion that helps. I find these very fast in adjusting and gaining leak free status.
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEBSITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
RE: How Many Minutes Below 90% Without CPAP Are Acceptable?
You don't need a pulmonologist to get you set up for a sleep study. You could ask your regular doctor to prescribe a home sleep study. Mine was done at home and I slept quite well in my own bed with the equipment. It was shipped to me, and I sent it back, all for no cost. The Nurse Practitioner with my regular doctor ordered it. I was all easy peasy, and now during covid it probably makes even more sense.
Machine: ResMed AirCurve 10 Vauto
Mask: Bleep DreamPort Sleep Solution
RE: How Many Minutes Below 90% Without CPAP Are Acceptable?
Yes that's an excellent point Deborah K. mentioned. Ask for a home sleep study. Advantage that it's at your home.
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEBSITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
RE: How Many Minutes Below 90% Without CPAP Are Acceptable?
Yes, I'm with Kaiser and both of my sleep studies were done at home in my own bed. I can't imagine why they hold these in a clinic, to be honest--but I'm just a guy on the internet. Perhaps there are good reasons.
RE: How Many Minutes Below 90% Without CPAP Are Acceptable?
I also did mine at home. I went down to the pulmonologist and picked up a small kit that consisted of a harnessed battery box that was small and sat on my forehead, and then two prongs came down and stuck at the entrance of my nose Like the Nitrous you get at the dentist office and I went to sleep on my back. Because I was an intermittent sleeper, so he wanted me to use it for three nights then I took it back down to him and he had the results within five days.
Glen in Ft Lauderdale
RE: How Many Minutes Below 90% Without CPAP Are Acceptable?
There are many forms of sleep disordered breathing and sleep disorders that can benefit from a clinical PSG test. The home testing lacks EEG and a useful respiratory trace. Since many of these tests can't distinguish sleep time, they under-estimate event indexes, and cannot determine sleep stage arousals, whether they arise form respiratory events or not. In spite of the many advantages of clinical studies, they are often poorly interpreted, and not leveraged to assess more complex problems, but end up as screening tools for CPAP, nearly always result in a predetermined finding of obstructive sleep apnea, or simply inadequate AHI to justify CPAP. This bias is created by Medicare and insurance companies that have only a singular financial interest in the outcomes, and a generally disinterested "sleep medicine" doctor that is a mere functionary to sign off on a technician's report. The science and medicine is gone, and in its place is an incredibly labor intensive, expensive test that almost never yields useful or interesting diagnostic information.
RE: How Many Minutes Below 90% Without CPAP Are Acceptable?
Sleeprider
I agree with your assessment. My pulmonologist last sent me in for a sleep study looking for titration report. What he got was a full study that didn’t provide the information he was looking for.
I’ll just limp along with the APAP and hopefully Medicare will continue supplying the expendables every quarter.
Robert
