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Just wanted to share some of my story, and give a bit of a review of an oximeter I recently purchased and how useful it's been.
For the past few years I have suffered from extreme daytime sleepiness and depression, which has severely impacted my ability to work (programming) as well as other areas of my life.
A full night's sleep and several naps a day didn't seem to help. Doctor's visits just led to multiple blood tests revealing nothing.
I webcam'ed myself one night, and was surprised to see myself choking, gasping, sputtering, and ceasing breathing many, many times, which truly shocked me. I finally did get booked with a respirologist (indirectly, due to allergies), and had a sleep study done. As that process took many, many months (and I'm still waiting on the results of the study), I purchased a "grey market" used CPAP (Remstar Pro with CPAP) for a few hundred, as funds were tight.
I used it only intermittently for the past several months; it seemed to help a bit, but not a lot.
Recently, I purchased a CMS-50E oximeter from EchoStore. I was quite happy with the price and prompt shipping (especially to Canada, where things can take weeks from the US: this arrived within days). The unit is great, charges nicely, fairly easy to use, nice display, recording ability, USB upload ability, and simple but great software (Windows only).
I purchased wireless option, but the clip-on part to the oximeter is fairly fragile, and I wouldn't trust myself sleeping with it on; I think it could easily snap the connector, there's little protection against that. With the recording ability, it's not really necessary. I'd probably recommend against spending the money on this option. (I don't regret it, as I believe the USB wireless unit is fairly generic, and I can find other good uses for them.)
The unit stays on my finger well during the night; it's slightly tight, causing a bit of sweatiness and a cold finger now and then. Not disturbingly so, and it's better that it stay on, than fall off. I usually end up flipping it to another finger now and then during the night for comfort, which is easy to do and didn't seem to affect any of the results.
The first few nights with the device were truly revealing.
The software produces various reports with detailed graphs, and nice summaries. In particular, the number of "desaturation events" (4% drop for 10 seconds or more) and "pulse events" (variations in pulse by more than 6bpm for 8 seconds or more) seem to be very useful and brief overall metrics that jumped out at me:
Night 1, no CPAP, 5 hours: 14 SpO2 events, 75 Pulse events
Night 2, CPAP, 7.5 hours: 2 SpO2 events, 4 Pulse events
Night 3, no CPAP, 6.3 hours: 22 SpO2 events, 102 Pulse events
Night 4, CPAP 6 hours: 0 SpO2 events, 0 Pulse events
Night 5, CPAP 5.5 hours, 0 SpO2 events, 7 Pulse events
For a fairly unscientific and non-medically-approved approach, the oximeter definitely seems to be demonstrating my need for the CPAP. It drastically reduces the SpO2 events (2/0/0 vs. 14/22) and the Pulse events (4/0/7 vs 75/102). I didn't realize how significantly the apnea affected pulse variations.
While the oximeter isn't really required equipment for a CPAP user, for me it definitely hit home the need for me to wear this unit every night. That alone makes it worth the price. Not initially seeing dramatic results from the CPAP, I hadn't been wearing it consistently (despite reading it can take a couple of weeks of constant use). I'm definitely convinced now, and will use the CPAP religiously...
I had also picked up the card reader for the Respironics CPAP from cpap-supply. It's a nice unit, and works well. Unfortunately, it seems the RemStar Pro with C-Flex only reports hours of usage per night, and not mask leakage, pressure, breathing incidents, as some of the other units do. So the card reader didn't really provide me the utility I was hoping for there, but that's no one's fault by my own (for lack of understanding what the RemStar PRO was recording).
I'm quite happy with the RemStar Pro + C-Flex overall, especially for an older unit. It, and the mask, are fairly noisy (and I have some mask leak issues I'm working on), but they get the job done. The humidifier/heater just seem to result in a lot of messy condensation in the mask by morning, and I don't seem to dry out without them, so I never use that option.
The mask seems to leak around the edges where the rubbery-feeling part attaches to the hard plastic part; that probably needs to be replaced (or perhaps the entire mask). If I tighten things down enough, I can stop the leaks, but it causes slight discomfort to do so (and leaves temporary marks come morning).
I'm on a prescription to help the daytime sleepiness and focus, which is making a world of difference as well; I'm expecting with regular CPAP usage (and some weight loss, exercise, and other goodness) that the prescription is only a short term measure, and that getting proper air at night is the long term solution.
Anyhow, just thought I'd share how useful the CMS-50E has been for me in getting a better idea of what was happening during my sleep.
I should note that I don't recommend getting a CPAP off prescription as I have; clearly it's best go through your Doctor. I was desperate and frustrated with the extreme delays, and had to try something. (Also, with no health plan, a prescription for a new unit wasn't likely going to be that useful.) It will be interesting to see what my sleep study reveals (I'll hopefully get the results of that this week).
Overall, definitely an interesting and education experience for me.
Rating:  [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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