I had my follow-up with the sleep doc today and we went over the results of my last pulse ox. The results of the overnight pulse ox without cpap/bipap were nearly identical to the results of the overnight with cpap. The results of both nights were better than the ones from the overnight titrations with bipap. He felt that was probably due to all of the centrals introduced by the bipap. I had some desats, but most of them occurred while I was awake. While sleeping, my O2 was pretty steady and I only went under 90 for about 10 minutes total during the night.

The conclusion was that bipap made my apnea worse, and cpap, while it doesn't worsen my apnea, doesn't make it any better either. He suspects my apnea is mild but without doing another overnight sleep study there's no way to know for sure. I opted not to do one since my O2 is fine without pap treatment.

I'm going to continue treating the insomnia with Lunesta when needed. I've been taking it only when I've had a couple of bad nights in a row and need a good night of sleep. When I stopped taking it every night, I did not have any kind of rebound effect. I just reverted to my normal insomnia pattern.

As for the problem of waking up repeatedly with the feeling I haven't been breathing, the doc thinks there's a chance it might be more from asthma than apnea. He gave me a prescription for Singulair to take in the evening for a couple of weeks, and one for Advair if the Singulair doesn't help. From now on, I don't have to see him at the sleep clinic unless something major changes and we decide I need another sleep study. I have follow-up with him in his lung office in six weeks.

So, that's it. I'm still going to read the posts here and hang out from time to time to see how all of you are doing. Good luck to everyone and big thanks to everyone here who helped me and offered good tips and advice, especially sleepydave!

SnoozeHunter

It's always so sad when they grow up and leave the nest!

Have a good one.
s.d.