Sleep Apnea

On 11/30 last year we Lori went for a sleep study. As I said in an earlier post she failed it miserably. She went back for a follow up study where they gave her a CPAP machine ("continuous positive airway pressure" a machine that forces air into you while you sleep). The results of that were much better. We went to the pulmonoligist yesterday to discuss everything so far.

After two weeks of using the CPAP at home the Dr. was hoping for better results. While some of Lori's "brain fog" has disappeared she has no more energy than she had before using it. Dr Bonilla said it looks as though Lori's fatigue is not caused by the apnea but by one of her other conditions.

The CPAP does have some lovely side effects including swollen, puffy eyes; distended abdomen that almost doubles Lori over in pain in the morning; and excessive gas. The Dr. said all of this should go away with time as Lori's body gets used to the machine. We go back to her in three months.

I mentioned Lori failed the test. Here are the actual results of her first nights sleep study:

total time in bed: 442 minutes
total time asleep: 376 minutes (seems ok so far . . . right?)
respitory events showed she had 42 central apneas, 187 obstructive apneas, 64 mixed apneas (see next paragraph for descriptions), 126 hypopnea (shallow breathing), for a grand total of 419 events. That's 66.9 events every hour of sleep. Her SAT (pulse ox) ranged from 94% (not bad) down to 87% (bad). She had 15 leg movements/hour which led to 44 awakenings.

[Obstructive sleep apnea is caused by a blockage of the airway, usually when the soft tissue in the rear of the throat collapses and closes during sleep. In central sleep apnea, the airway is not blocked but the brain fails to signal the muscles to breathe. Mixed apnea, as the name implies, is a combination of the two. With each apnea event, the brain briefly arouses people with sleep apnea in order for them to resume breathing, but consequently sleep is extremely fragmented and of poor quality. ]

She had 419 arousals from not breathing; 44 arousals from leg movements and 4 spontaneous arousals. She also had 20 short awakenings.

Bottom line she wakes up for one reason or another 74 times per hour!!!!!!!

The 2nd study was much better. Once they had the CPAP machine calibrated correctly and the proper mask fitted correctly Lori's sleep increased dramatically. I did not get a copy of the report so I don't have the numbers in front of me I the Dr said it was more like 6 events per hour instead of 74. Lori's pulse ox stayed closer to 97% (perfect).

Seeing these results can only mean good things for Lori in the future. While it wasn't he magic pill (again) it has too help her overall health.