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Re: sleep study

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Posted by westernjoe on July 09, 2010 at 17:20:25:

In Reply to: Re: sleep study posted by D.H. on June 22, 2010 at 02:27:17:

Thank you sandman for this!

From my point of view as a lowly patient, there are 3 areas for quantifying apnea severity for use in treatment decisions:

#1 The "numbers" RDI, AHI, o2, bla bla bla
#2 How a person feels
#3 The unseen/unfelt damage to organs, heart, neurological systems, BP, etc.

I think it would be reasonable to at LEAST give these three categories equal weighting. If anything, the "numbers" would be the lowest in value. But for the most part, patients and Drs both try to use them as the main guide.

My position is, I don't care if I have great numbers and no organ damage, if I'm disabled by fatigue and sleepiness then something should be done.

The same is true for #3. I don't care if I have great numbers and feel great, but if my heart is so damaged that I'll kill over at 45 then something should be done.

The reverse is true also. If I had terrible numbers, but no organ damage happening and felt fine, then the numbers should be ignored.

So the "numbers" are just trying to give us an idea of the other 2. Maybe we should just abandon numbers and spend more time asking how people feel and trying to measure the effects on our organs. I know that's radical and not gonna happen, but I just hate to see so many people making treatment decisions based mostly on the numbers.

RA in TX

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PLEASE ONLY CLICK THE SUBMIT FOLLOW UP BUTTON ONCE!!. Thanks, Sandman

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