No Apnea. Complete Copy of Report
Hey.  My DR just faxed me a one page report from the Repirologist and Sleep Study.  I will type it completely and invite your comments.  Now........why in hell do I feel so crummy?

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The patient was studied this night (Jan 9/06) in evaluation of suspected sleep apnea.  Primary medication reported was Synthroid.  The Epworth sleepiness score was 15.

The patient reported that on the night of this study that she took longer to fall asleep, sleeping as soundly and awakening as often as she usually does at home.

The sleep time was 268 minutes with a sleep efficiency that was reduced to 68%.  The latency period to sleep onset was prolonged at 83 minutes with a REM latency of 86 minutes.  Almost no slow wave sleep was seen with the restriction of REM sleep evident.  Spontaneous arounsal index of 23 events per hour was noted.

The patient manifested some intermittent soft snoring.  There was no apneas with only 5 hypopneas for a respiratory disturbance index of one event per hour.  The oxygen saturation remained above 90% during the night.  Transcutaneous carbon dioxide levels were reasonably stable.  A baseline sinus rhythm was observed.

Significant leg movements during sleep were not seen.

IMPRESSION:

No evidence to suggest sleep apnea.

The patients comments and complaints regarding the study night were noted. ::::))))

DICTATED BUT NOT READ.  (somebodies initial)

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this one page report is the result I would want of course, but it does raise even more questions about why I feel so desparately ill and deteriorating all the time.

Is oxygen levels at 90% good enough?  Is sleep efficiency of 68% good enough?  Is  lack of SWS a major concern?  What about the 23 arousals per hour?  I've just phoned the respirologist office and she said the DR does not need to see me because the result reads No evidence to suggest sleep apnea.   So I've booked an appointment with my family DR for tomorrow, but I know she has shelved the report for the same reason.

Thanks,  any feedback greatly appreciated.

Catharine

Hi Catharine:
Well, in looking back at how your night at the laboratory went:

Quote:

...at about 2 AM I called him into my room to tell him the freaking party he was having at the front desk was keeping me awake.  And it was so hot in that room I could hardly breathe.  So then he mentions that I can turn the air conditioner on but he didn't want to leave the remote with me to control it, thats when I lost it a wee tiny bit.  Then when the air conditioner came on, and the noise level went down I finally got to sleep.

it may be a little difficult to come to any conclusions about the sleep efficiency, and maybe even the arousals.  But get the long report, especially the graphs, and we'll give it a shot.
BTW, when do you take the Synthroid, AM or PM?
sleepydave

Hi sleepydave:  and thanks for responding to my inquiry.   First:  I take the Synthroid every morning approx. 8 AM - 9AM.  I've been on Synthroid since I was 11 years old,  I am now 55.....and my thyroid blood work is done regularly.

Trouble is:  This one little page report is all I have.  And you wouldn't believe the chains I had to rattle to get it.  I've been calling the sleep lab for over a week with no response.  Finally I called the hospital Patient Relations number.  About 20 minutes after that I got this one page report appearred on my personal fax.  with a c.c. sent to my DR.

How many pages should I ask for?  in case anybody ever does call me back?  

Catharine

Catharine:
Get 'em all, should be about 3 to 6 pages or so.
s.d.

I'm having an awful time getting a 3 to 6 page report.  I just got an hour long phone call from the Hospital Privacy officer telling me there is no such thing as a 3 to 6 page report from the sleep lab which is affliated to the hospital.  and then a whole load of other stuff regarding  policies, consent forms, privacy act, geeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzzz.

they kept insisting that they need to know WHY I want the report.  And I keep inisisting that it doesn't matter WHY I want it, simply I am the patient and entitled to it.

I am entitled to it?  Am I not?  This is a Canadian Hospital if that makes any difference.

Catharine

I just got another call back from the hospital saying that they are faxing over a consent form, and that I had to sign/fax back and they would send me my records or sleep test at the rate of $1.00 per page with a minimum charge of $50.00.

She said she could not or would not differentiate between the 3 to 6 pages I want, from the long report.  And would be sending the complete report.  eh?  so now they have me in a position of huge cost since the actual report is 100's of pages long is it not?

Catharine

No, the long report is only 4 to 7 pages long.
Keeping in mind that the overall quality of sleep study is such that any information might not even be helpful, yeah that's a lot of money.
If your physician is aware of the poor quality study, maybe you could have him get the long report and get the copy from him gratis.
sleepydave

WOW.  My phone rang at 8 AM this morning and it was the hospital to tell me they wanted me to know they are waiving the FEE.   And I hadn't even ask.  

I also had a meeting with my family DR yesterday afternoon who freely admitted she had no idea how to interpret the results of the sleep study, not even the bits of information on the one page report.  No surprise there.