Is this Normal?

[Poor Old Ann]

Good morning
Started CPAP a week ago, Friday 13th May.
A week later, Friday night was first night with mask liner, no leaks all night, great.
I also bought a Contec CMS50 Pulse Oximeter. Friday night I set it to record but I couldn't get my computer to "see" it with the USB.
Called and e-mailed for help but nothing back yet.
So, last night decided to use it with the alarm function. Was happily scoring SPO2 97-98 reading and watching TV so settled down to sleep. As soon as I nodded off the alarm went off at 85. This kept happening, eg 01.06 turned the light out 01.10 alarm went off. In the end I gave up and turned it off.
I'm guessing that as soon as I nod off I stop breathing, shouldn't the CPAP be sorting this out now?
Thanks for any ideas
Ann

[Tigers Fan]

Why????????

Why on earth would you set the alarm?

You have OSA so you know you desat. Why do you want to be woken when you desat? You're on CPAP precisely so you don't wake!

May I suggest you put the oximeter away in a cupboard and leave it there till you are fully compliant on CPAP and have your stats sorted. Then is the time to get your new toy out and play.

TF

[Poor Old Ann]

Why on earth would you set the alarm?

You have OSA so you know you desat. Why do you want to be woken when you desat? You're on CPAP precisely so you don't wake!

May I suggest you put the oximeter away in a cupboard and leave it there till you are fully compliant on CPAP and have your stats sorted. Then is the time to get your new toy out and play.

TF

Hmmm.. I guess I'm too new to this, I thought that on CPAP I would be doing the desat less. I guess I was being too optimistic.

I only set the alarm as I couldn't connect to my PC to see the overnight results like so many people on here seem to do. I thought I would be reassured that the alarm didn't go off - I really was hoping it wouldn't!
Naive Old Ann?

[Tigers Fan]

I believe in keeping things as simple as possible (a lot of my friends would not agree with that assertion!) and so let's assume that any dangerous tendencies you have about breathing were picked up at your sleep study - plus, you are still with us. This being so, your desats are within an 'acceptable' range. Anyway, your alarm goes off - what are you going to do about it?

The CPAP will lessen your desats but only when you have the settings correct for controlling your OSA - till then, you will have apnoeas and thus desats.

Also, do you know what your 'normal' saturation level is? Knowing that is a bit crucial to setting alarm levels.

Contec software seems to be problematic. They sent me the wrong program for my oximeter initially so I couldn't upload data even though my PC recognised the meter. I hear others have worked round the problems but they seem to be computer professionals.

TF

[James @ Intus]

I agree with TF, it's too early days to be perfectionist about it all. Especially if it's fixed pressure CPAP, you'd be very lucky if it treated 100% of your breathing anomalies within week 1.

This is roughly how it goes:

- Get CPAP
- Use CPAP
- Get used to CPAP
- Get CPAP Reviewed
- Get CPAP Tweaked
- Get used to new levels of CPAP
- Get CPAP Reviewed
- Get CPAP Tweaked
- Now worry about the remaining AHI/ODI.

[Sparticus]

Why?

What made you think you needed one? These things will not cure your OSA or have any effect other than data gathering.

Concentrate on your Cpap

[Poor Old Ann]

Ah ha!

Well, I was really thinking that it wasn't working, so I wanted some reassurance that it was.
After 10 days on CPAP I started with really bad acid reflux, never had it before in my life, and reading up on this, it seems that CPAP is supposed to make this better if you have it.

It occured to me that the way the mask was pressing on my nose was actually making my breathing worse (I had a nose operation a few years ago). I talked to the nurse at Papworth and now have nasal pillows and am getting along a lot better and hey presto, acid reflux has almost disappeared.
Thanks for the help
Ann

[alibongo]

Lol I like James s post !I find if I eat too near to bed time not helpful can led to acid reflux y thing glad nasal pillow helping !

[Patsyw]

What made you think you needed one? These things will not cure your OSA or have any effect other than data gathering.

Concentrate on your Cpap

Some people are interested to know and completely understand whats going on rather than blithely just `do as you are told` like a sheep without understanding why.

[Poor Old Ann]

Some people are interested to know and completely understand whats going on rather than blithely just `do as you are told` like a sheep without understanding why.

Thank you Patsyw
From reading the messages here, I thought it was the norm!
Ann

[Sparticus]

The Norm

Hi Ann, yes some peeps chase there stats and like to tweak, just because you dont do this doesnt make you any different. You can always tell if something is wrong as your body will tell you and you dont need to wire yourself up for sound to find out if you slept ok. Its your choice how far you go

[mart9012]

Oximeter?

Never even thought about an Oximeter to be honest. I had my sleep clinic sleepover way back in 2005 and got a machine and got on with it.

Now I've had my old machine back once so they could take stats from it (and I guess that was just hours of use because it was an old Resmed S6). I've never been back to be retested or even discover if CPAP is really effective - I guess it's good enough to simply hardly ever snore and feel awake in the day. My S9 Escape has a memory card in it and perhaps it can store more stats they can use but they haven't asked for me to send that in either. I guess the internet ready CPAP machine is a way off yet!

Am I missing out on important info here? I did ask about AHI with my sleep clinic who tell me they don't use AHI but use ODI instead. So I asked for my original ODI just to find out how bad I was and it was 35 (which is apparently moderate). Be interesting to find out how much things have improved. But £100 for a meter isn't going to happen.

Anyway I've asked for an appointment to catch up with the sleep unit.

[symmit]

ODI is oxygen desaturation index, the number of times your spO2 drops below 88% in an hour. You can get the CMS50F wrist oximeter from ebay for about 60 quid, so for the price of a tank of fuel or a posh dinner for two you can keep an eye on your therapy, though as you say if you feel well you are well, no snoring and no sleepiness is good, the only reasons to check up are if it's not working, or if you want to see if you can get away with lower pressures