Posted by ggazcamper on January 04, 2012 at 07:41:28:I was diagnosed with sleep apnea in 2001. I couldn't tolerate the CPAP (at a pressure of about 9), so had extensive surgery for the apnea, on both my tongue and sinuses. The result was an overgrowth of scar tissue, a more narrow opening with nasal stenosis. My next sleep study a couple years later showed severe APNEA, and my pressure was raised to 16, which caused stomach problems from air. A few years later, I had another study, and it showed mild sleep apnea. My pressure was lowered to 7. Recently, my humidifier broke (none of the heated humidifiers I ever had worked well, and I suffer from severe burning dry mouth). I also went on Medicare last year, so I requested another sleep study when the machine provider refused to deal with the broken humidifier, thinking I needed a perscription for a better, working machine. A split study was ordered by my neurologist. They never put a mask on me during the study, and claimed that I didn't have apnea. I just returned from seeing the pulminologist who read the study. He said that all the different readings were due to the insurance companies, as each of them have different criteria about what an apnea event is. Medicare has the strictest requirements, so according to Medicare requirements, I don't have apnea and can't have a machine. I tried sleeping without my CPAP. In spite of the humidifier problems, I don't sleep well without it at all. The doctor says that is just because I am used to it, even though I don't need it. My husband says that I struggle to breath and make loud noises trying when I don't have it on, so he wakes me up and has me put it on. Another complication is that I've always had insomnia, and blamed my masks. But another doctor recently gave me clonazePAM, for another issue, and for the first time in decades, I slept through the night without waking, as long as I had my sleep mask on. When I tried to stop using either, I woke up. I took the clonazePAM the night of the sleep study, according to my neuologist's direction. Could it have decreased the incidence of APNEAs? I don't know what or who to believe anymore, but I really feel that I'm being manipulated and dismissed. Has anyone encountered similar issues? Does the incidents of countable apneas really depend upon the insurance companies definitions? Does clonazePAM decrease apneas?
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