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Right diagnosis?

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Posted by Arlo on October 15, 2012 at 00:22:15:

I’m a 63-year old female, 5’2”, 125 lbs. After years of morning headaches and feeling sluggish and tired during the day, I did a sleep study in early September, and was diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea. (I should mention that in early August, a month before the study, I quit caffeine and at the time of the sleep study the headaches were already reduced 80%.)

For two weeks now I’ve been struggling to adapt to CPAP, not easy, but making progress. Trying a few different masks, I’ve had some good nights and some where I couldn’t go more than an hour because of nasal congestion – but that’s another topic.

My real issue is coming.

Here are my AHI results:
AHI: 11.9
NREM AHI: 14.2
REM AHI: 4.0
Non-supine AHI: 3.5
Supine AHI: 30.5

I’m a side sleeper. For the study, I did what they said, and slept on my back, although at some point during the night, I rolled onto my side to get comfortable. I understand that for the study, they had to get me in a position where I would have the most possible episodes, i.e., my back.

Two nights ago, I used CPAP all night, 8.5 hours, and woke up feeling heavy-headed, within two hours was feeling tired, never recovered all morning, by 2:00 pm needed a nap and slept for over 1-1/2 hours.

Last night, I struggled with CPAP, got frustrated, removed the mask and didn’t use it all night. I woke up feeling energized, relaxed, no heavy-headedness, enough energy to go to the gym. It’s now 11:00 am and I still feel full of energy.

This has to make me wonder.

Is sleep apnea really the source of my sluggishness and heavy-headedness given the above? I’m not convinced I should be going through this whole CPAP adjustment (to say nothing of the cost of this whole thing) if, given the AHI above, all I need to do is make sure I don’t sleep on my back.

I go to see my sleep doctor on Tuesday and hope to get some feedback on this before talking to him.
What happened the last two nights makes me wonder how accurate my diagnosis is.

Any input would be appreciated. Thank you.


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