Sleep apnea help...

And if insurance won't pay, you can fall back and work out a way to self pay. It will be okay.

I don't understand this doctor - is he a sleep specialist (pulmonologist?) Who sent you for the sleep study?

Guess I just don't understand everything in your post. How long was your study? How many episodes did you have during the course of an hour? Not sure what "not being qualified as sleep apnea positive" means. I'm really not understanding some of what you put in your post. For example you say that your insurance will look at this and see a non sleep apnea person but your doctor says that you are suffering from a sleep disorder". Not sure what this means.

I became kind of an expert on sleep apnea because mine was life threatening for several years before my DS. My heart stopped for 8 seconds during my first sleep study and had to have a pacemaker put in. All of that is long gone since I lost the weight.

My other post has more on this but I will explain. I will try to keep this short because I just hate blabbing to much … because I am afraid if I start I won’t stop…. Just like my mother lol

 sorry this is long...

So I was referred to a sleep doctor; who is also a pulmonologist, Board Certifications in Internal Medicine, American College of Chest Physicians, and American Board of Sleep Medicine. He ordered a sleep study done as well as a CPAP study. He forewarned me this might not be able to be done in the same night. By the way the sleep study was throughout the night. I was tucked in by a very tall man who made me laugh. I felt tiny and that is saying something because … well I am morbidly obese hahaha  ok so they did not do the CPAP that night. I just had my follow up to this sleep study with my sleep doctor. He says I have a lot of arousals, honestly I don’t have the PAGES AND PAGES of my sleep study, and I only have one page scrunched up. So I can tell on the scale where I was waking up but it’s so small, because its condensed, I can’t physically tell you how many times I had arousals. I mean I could get my pages and pages and count all of them lol but I will take his word for it. He explained it to me like this:

I had lots of arousals

My passage way is very narrow and is classified as below normal room for my airways

I had some obstruction because I was not breathing for 10+ seconds

I also am having REM cycles that are being interrupted because my heart is beating so fast during this time. Heart is beating fast because I am having obstruction episodes where I am not breathing.

BIG THING IS you have to have enough of these to qualify for sleep apnea. Just because I have these problems does not grant me a green card for sleep apnea. If I do not have enough ‘disturbances ‘during my sleep study then I ‘technically’ do not have sleep apnea. This means insurance will write me off as not having sleep apnea but I am wondering if I do have to use a CPAP and it does help me does that not count for anything?

So with that said he says I am having problems in my sleep… which is obvious! It’s just I am not classified as having sleep apnea because I fall short of a few disturbances. He says this will be harder to treat because … I am guessing that the CPAP might or might not help me at this point. I need to have a CPAP testing done throughout the night.

 

I am not an expert but this is what I have read and understand.  If I didn’t explain it well let me know or if you have any questions.

Around here, most of the sleep docs ALWAYS require a two night study.  When mine was done, it was in two parts, one to see how I normally sleep and one to see how I did with a cpap and adjustments/O2/etc.  I had multiple disturbances the first night, red flags and such, the 2nd time they tried me on the cpap without the O2, and red flags went up everywhere along with the crash cart on it's way to my room.  Alot of stuff didn't show up in my "normal" sleep, but when deprived of O2 with my sleep, it got scary.  You'll find out more with the next study, and if it's a problem, you're insurance will more than likely (can't imagine an excuse for not covering a situation that can KILL you) cover it.  Obstructive sleep apnea can be dangerous.  I don't mean to scare you, but I REFUSE to sleep without mine now.  My mother had about the worst sleep apnea EVER, mine is kinda mild in comparison.  Make sure you are completely evaluated and most times the recommendations from the doc about a sleep disorder are sufficient.  This is just the stuff I know about it...others can probably tell you more....

I read your post and I couldn't agree more. I have just recently learned sleep apnea is very serious to your health. I can't believe the CPAP actually showed more red flags....I wonder how mine will be... intereseting I would have never thought. I learn something new everyday!

there are different types of SA,, and different causes, you may have a two, due to a very long standing obstructed airway and now a Central apnea as well. the brain get use to a lower 02 level over time and acts differently when presented oxygen , sometimes not breathing. that is why diagnosis is so critical preop, you may require a bi pap machine instead of a cpap, I did originally and had surgery before that would work as well,  and after i lost weight my apnea did not go away, it stayed the same.  I had it long be before i got fat,  apnea cause weight gain.  and  a fib, documented both in my case.

You may want to post on the cpaptalk.com board. They have some great people there - just like us with DS. They have the same proactive, educate yourself type attitude that you see here.

BTW, I have severe sleep apnea (O2 sat went down to 52%) with almost all hyponeas, no apneas. My AHI was 32. CPAP took care of it. My pulmonologist thinks there is a good chance it will resolve; we decided to wait for another sleep study until I'm close to goal.  My first hint I had sleep apnea is when I had a heart attack in the middle of night.

Hi, I'm a Registered Polysomnography Technologist (Sleep Tech). The one who hooks you up to all the wires and fit you for your CPAP mask.
You may have what we call RERAs or Respiratory Event Related Arousals. This means that you are having some type of decrease in your air flow but not enough to qualify or fit the criteria for an apnea or hypopnea. With that decrease in airflow you will have an arousal which will pull you out of of sleep briefly. With multiple of these during the night this can cause other issues like cardio and neuro problems. Also you will feel tired at times you are supposed to be awake.
So you may have this type of sleep disorder which A CPAP can also resolve. Insurances companies are definitely covering for this....now. It was hard to get covered some years ago though.

Most insurance companies say and AHI of 5 or more plus snoring and excessive daytime sleepiness (by taking an epworth test) qualifies you as having sleep apnea. One more bit of info  is that the AHI (apnea hypopnea index) does not include the RERAs but the RDI (respiratory disturbance index) does. So now that we (in Sleep) see that RERAs are also affecting people negatively and we can not treat RERAs effectively.

So if you get a CPAP this will definitely help.... if needed... to qualify for surgery.

I hope this helps and wasn't too long winded.

GREAT INFO TY TY TY!
I appriciate you telling me this:)