Sweet Dreams

I know it's been a while since I last posted... which is a bit of a surprise to me. It's been a super busy month and I just didn't take the time to blog. My bad. Here we go....

A Beautiful Specimen

On July 27th I had my sleep study at the Wellspan Sleep Center. The first part of the study is observing you sleep until no later than 1:30am. The second portion is observing you sleep while using the CPAP. There are certain parameters you must meet by 1:30 in order to do the second portion of the study. For me the study went very well (as in I failed miserably, which is what we expected). Here are the study results:

DIAGNOSTIC STUDY
Monitoring Phase:
Total sleep time for the study was 129.5 minutes. During this time there were 225 arousal's (arousal index was 104.2 per hour of sleep). There were 15 obstructive apneas and 105 obstructive hypopneas (apnea/hypopnea index was 55.5 events per hour of sleep). Average O2 saturation was 92% with the lowest level recorded at 86%. Average heart rate was 72.6 beats per minute with an irregular heart rhythm noted.

CPAP Titration Study:
Monitoring Phase:
Total sleep time for the study was 252.5 minutes. During this time there were 54 arousal's (arousal index was 12.8 per hour of sleep). There were 0 obstructive apneas and 5 obstructive hypopneas (apnea/hypopnea index was 1.2 events per hour of sleep). Average O2 saturation was 94% with the lowest level recorded at 89%. Average heart rate was 62.3 beats per minute with an irregular heart rhythm noted.

Summary:
The diagnostic study showed a severe form of obstructive sleep apnea. CPAP was titrated from 5 to 19 cm of H2O. Snoring was eliminated at 19, however, an acceptable apnea/hypopnea index was present with any pressure above 15 cm of H2O. A full face mask is a must for this patient. If the patient is unable to tolerate this high CPAP pressure, the consideration can be given to lower the CPAP to anywhere between 15 and 19 cm of H2O.

End of report.

So there you have the Reader's Digest condensed version of my study. There was other information presented, but this is it in a nutshell.

CPAP Machine

I have a choice of two types of masks I can use. I prefer the "pillow" mask, which fits directly into the nostrils. I'm told this isn't a good idea for me due to the high pressure setting.A full face mask is recommended. I have been fitted for one with a gel insert and soft silicone that's supposed to be fairly comfortable and generally well tolerated.We'll see how it goes. I'm still in the "try it out" phase. I'm really hoping the pillow mask will work best because it's almost like having nothing at all. The only down side to it is when you have a cold. Then you must use the full mask. I'm just glad I have the equipment I need to finally get some much needed sleep. The Cardiologist and Pulmonologist have told me that this is critical to helping with my Congestive Heart Failure and Pulmonary Hypertension. It's a new day to begin feeling better! Yay.