No sleep apnoea.

[Ockrocket]

So after years of saying my previous sleep apnoea test was incorrect, finally I've been vindicated.

I had another sleep study done a couple of weeks ago and all my numbers are within normal range for a person who is classed as not having sleep apnoea.

Given during my previous sleep test I had no option but to sleep on my back (normally I am a side sleeper) it caused me to snore and therefore the specialist stated I had "mild sleep apnoea" even though no numbers were shown to me.
The specialist also pushed me towards a specific well known brand of machine and a particular local reseller/agent for the brand.. the cynic in me questions why the specialist was doing that - but it is past history and I've learned to question more in situations like that in the future.

I spent years using that machine and having lower quality sleep than before using it. 
Being a side sleeper and having bursitis in my shoulders means I swap from side to side many times a night due to pain. Normally when I rotate I don't wake enough to even register I'm moving on most occasions.
With the CPAP hose having to be moved each time I rolled over I was consciously waking fully to move the hose, this subsequently gave me poorer sleep quality than not using a CPAP machine.

I haven't used my CPAP for the last couple of years, but have had to be medically cleared to maintain my professional driver status. Now I've dropped all my professional licence endorsements and wanted to get the compulsory compliance requirement lifted from my driving licence.
My current GP suggested a new sleep study done through a different company and location, the results now give him the documentation to submit that I no longer need to be compliant to CPAP use.

So if you have been diagnosed and feel the diagnosis is incorrect in any way, get a second opinion or a second test.
Your GP/doctor should be onboard with helping you get proper treatment rather than going on with what isn't working for you.
Make sure you actually need a CPAP machine in the first place, then if you do make sure it is working effectively for your needs. 
Don't leave it unquestioned if you feel you are not getting effective treatment.

This forum has been a great help to me over the years with problems such as rainout, mask fitment and machine settings. Members and the admin team collectively hold a wealth of knowledge and experience.

Thank you to all of you.

Ock. (aka Steve)

[Sleeptechmaster]

There are some masks with the attaching at the top of the head which is better for moving side to side. (DreamWear nasal, full face) If you were using a nasal mask you might have had mouth leak problems waking you. 
If you were once told you had mild osa (5 to 15 events per hour) that can still be significant to health in the long run. 
Apneas could be waking you up through the night causing you to more sensitive to pain and rolling over. Side sleep osa is less severe than supine sleep but it could still be effecting your REM sleep. 
If you still have your machine you could get a full face mask or nasal mask using a chinstrap with the top hose connection and try a lower pressure to reduce snoring and the minor osa.

[Ockrocket]

There are some masks with the attaching at the top of the head which is better for moving side to side. (DreamWear nasal, full face) If you were using a nasal mask you might have had mouth leak problems waking you. 
If you were once told you had mild osa (5 to 15 events per hour) that can still be significant to health in the long run. 
Apneas could be waking you up through the night causing you to more sensitive to pain and rolling over. Side sleep osa is less severe than supine sleep but it could still be effecting your REM sleep. 
If you still have your machine you could get a full face mask or nasal mask using a chinstrap with the top hose connection and try a lower pressure to reduce snoring and the minor osa.

Over the years, with the advice from the knowledgeable members of this forum and from elsewhere, I have tried the majority of options available in the way of masks, machine settings etc..
However the fact is in my case I never really needed to be using a CPAP machine, I was pushed onto it by a specialist who was more intent on directing me towards a specific supplier it appears. Unfortunately in my case my CPAP machine caused me more disruption to my sleep and gave me poorer quality sleep than not using it, even with achieving nights with an AHI close to zero most of the time.

The point of my post here is to make people aware that they don't necessarily get the correct advice from their doctor or a specialist.. question everything if your sleep quality isn't improving.
Over the years I have read many posts and comments in this group where members were given wrong settings for their machines and other things that were not giving them the maximum benefit of using a CPAP machine.
I am not suggesting people just up and discard their CPAP machines.
Using a CPAP machine is a necessity for many people in maintaining a good level of general health, but you need to be certain that the machine is giving you the optimum treatment and improving your sleep quality overall.

[Phaleronic]

"The point of my post here is to make people aware that they don't necessarily get the correct advice from their doctor or a specialist.. question everything if your sleep quality isn't improving."

I agree

[PeaceLoveAndPizza]

G’day Ock. That is great news.

Any chance you could post both the original and new sleep studies? It would be helpful for us to learn by seeing how things have changed in comparing the two.

[cps22]

Congratulations on your new test results!

Wow, I feel like I could almost have written your post, other than having the new sleep study. I have always been extremely suspicious of my in-lab sleep apnea test for a number of reasons. Nonetheless, I used CPAP regularly for 8 months, averaging around 7.5 hours per night of use. Like you, I have shoulder bursitis, and also knee pain and coccyxdynia, so I'm also moving around all night (I do use the F30i with a hose hanger, so the CPAP hose isn't a problem when doing that, but I have to reposition pillows whenever I roll to a different position.) The CPAP contributed to poorer sleep due to noise, discomfort, aerophagia, anxiety, etc. My AHI was low, but I still had a lot of flow limits.

I was getting more and more fatigued, and having a lot of trouble with brain fog. (At no point in my therapy did I ever feel BETTER than I did before I started using it.) It got so bad I didn't dare drive a car, and felt as bad as I did a year ago when I had a B12 deficiency (which is what led to the sleep study in the first place.) My doctor did a bunch of labs, but everything was OK so she said to talk to the sleep doctor. 

Before doing that, I did receive some help from the great people here (and elsewhere) to adjust my CPAP settings to see if I could get improvement. Unfortunately, while using EPR helped reduce my flow limits and led to better and more restful sleep, I am sensitive to it and it caused a lot of CAs which gave me headaches. Increased pressure also increased my AHI, so overall I was best off with the settings originally prescribed (fixed 8cm).

But it was getting more and more intolerable. I was having even more aerophagia, more leaks (even with brand new cushions and headgear), and the final straw was having so much trouble with "chipmunk cheeks" despite using a collar or chinstrap that I just stopped using it for a few days. And felt enormously better. I tried using it again a few times, but just couldn't. So for the past 6 weeks I've been without it - and feel "normal". I still wake up a lot (probably from pain issues), but overall my sleep is better and all that fatigue and brain fog are gone.  

The downside is that although I am not sure that the sleep study was accurate,  I do believe that I have some type of sleep-disturbed breathing. My respiration rate and minute vent are very low, and while normally my SpO2 is OK, I have occasional nights (whether on or off CPAP) when I spend a long time (sometimes an hour or more) < 90% SpO2. Yet the SpO2 stats from my O2Ring are nearly identical for the past 6 weeks compared to the previous 8 months on CPAP, so clearly CPAP does nothing to help that issue. I did discover that sleeping on my left side causes my SpO2 to drop, so I have stopped doing that. 

I do plan to make an appointment with my sleep doc to talk about these issues, but at the moment I am unable to use CPAP even if I wanted to because I had a throat procedure done a few weeks ago that temporarily paralyzes the upper esophageal sphincter - so the CPAP just basically blows me up like a balloon. I've talked to him about the low respiration rate/minute vent issue before, and he just brushed it off. But at least now I have stats from my O2ring showing how much time I spend under 90% and maybe he'll pay attention to that. I doubt my insurance would pay for another sleep study though, when it's only been a year since the first one.

[SarcasticDave94]

Congrats Ockrocket/Steve. Hope things improve without the unneeded CPAP. You might be hanging up the mask, and I'm finally getting ready to put one on again after 4 years of chaos.

[Ockrocket]

G’day Ock. That is great news.

Any chance you could post both the original and new sleep studies? It would be helpful for us to learn by seeing how things have changed in comparing the two.

I wasn't shown the original sleep study, just told I had "mild sleep apnoea" and needed a CPAP machine.
It was an in hospital sleep study done by a sleep specialist my then doctor found in his list of medical specialists that operated in my general area after I fell asleep at the wheel and crashed the vehicle I was driving. 
The crash was attended by police and my driver's licence was suspended for six months because no cause was found for the accident.
At the time I had lived the preceding 10 years averaging around four hours a night of sleep - my crash was caused by sheer fatigue.. but authorities don't accept that as a valid reason, they want a medical cause and then compliance to whatever they deem "appropriate treatment" - for me that was CPAP.

My current doctor is much more focused on proper treatment and understood using the CPAP machine wasn't improving my sleep quality.
He started to see my feeling I didn't actually have sleep apnoea was possibly valid, hence the recent sleep study.

[Ockrocket]

So an update roughly seven weeks on from my official "no sleep apnoea" results.

I'm sleeping well, though I already knew I was better off without the CPAP machine disturbing my sleep every time I rolled over at night.
Now I have been focussing on regaining my sleep quality in other aspects.
I still have some work to do on breaking the habit of waking during the night when rolling over, but I'm now sleeping deeper and generally going to sleep more quickly when I first go to bed.

What going on CPAP did for me was make me more aware of my sleep habits, although it "improved" my AHI, my numbers are already below what is considered sleep apnoea without the use of a CPAP machine when sleeping in my normal position.
My previous in hospital sleep test results appear to have been purely positional as I was forced to sleep on my back during that first test. 

Quality sleep, by whatever means works best for you as an individual, is the goal. 

[DaveL]

I'm so pleased you have had a good sleep test.

Sleep wellness is so important.

It's not normal to wear a mask and a 6 foot hose.