How serious to take sleep apnea/cpap?

[dh37]

I'm on a short vacation with the family, and the power went out. (It came on a few hours later, before bed, but as we all know that's not guaranteed.)

Things got pretty tense; my kids are teenagers, and one of them is pretty spoiled. (She got in a big fight with my wife about going home in time to catch a movie with a friend (on Saturday).)

_I_ was tense about the power outage because of my cpap, natch.

My wife at one point yelled at me (lots of yelling all around!) about my "...precious cpap".

Am I wrong to take cpap/sleep apnea this seriously? OK, sure, at most it probably would have been only one night. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't kill me, but even one night with no treatment is pretty nasty.j

(My recollection is that my original at-home sleep study implied I didn't have many apneas, more like lots of hypopneas, but it's still bad enough that I feel measurably worse the next day, even if I use it for most but not all of the night.)

[lazarus]

My understanding is that someone with moderate-to-severe OSA with serious desaturations and significant comorbidities (such as cardiovascular issues) could be taking on some meaningful risk of damage to health and life if he or she goes all night, even just one, without PAP.

But for the mild-to-moderate-OSA person with otherwise good health, it may just mean a night of very bad sleep. The risk of death from accident the next day may be elevated from tiredness and lack of concentration, but death during the night may be unlikely. For them, cumulative damage may be more of an issue overall than any sudden or immediate danger.

Where are you on that scale? Good question for a sleep doc who knows both your sleep-breathing condition and your medical history. But you did once post that your OSA had been diagnosed as "severe." Just sayin'.

It's all a numbers game with a lot of variables. For example, if a night follows an evening of some alcohol and some heavy eating and then maybe some cold meds or sleep meds, then even a non-OSA person can have risky, dangerous sleep. So context and variables have their place in being factored into the numbers game. Living life is never without risks, after all.

But no more yelling and fighting on vacation, OK? It's a rule. Tell the twins they do NOT want me to have to come crash your vacation!

[Sheriff Buford]

You are ok. I would refrain from talking about cpap with the wife. She obviously doesn't want to hear about it.

Sheriff

[dh37]

My understanding is that someone with moderate-to-severe OSA with serious desaturations and significant comorbidities (such as cardiovascular issues) could be taking on some meaningful risk of damage to health and life if he or she goes all night, even just one, without PAP.

Luckily I don't have any other comorbidities.

But for the mild-to-moderate-OSA person with otherwise good health, it may just mean a night of very bad sleep. The risk of death from accident the next day may be elevated from tiredness and lack of concentration, but death during the night may be unlikely. For them, cumulative damage may be more of an issue overall than any sudden or immediate danger.

I'm guessing for me it's probably more the latter.

Where are you on that scale? Good question for a sleep doc who knows both your sleep-breathing condition and your medical history. But you did once post that your OSA had been diagnosed as "severe." Just sayin'.

That's a good idea. I should follow up with the doc. Maybe a concise query via the patient portal. (No chance in hell of getting even a small consult appointment anytime soon.)

It's all a numbers game with a lot of variables. For example, if a night follows an evening of some alcohol and some heavy eating and then maybe some cold meds or sleep meds, then even a non-OSA person can have risky, dangerous sleep. So context and variables have their place in being factored into the numbers game. Living life is never without risks, after all.

Right---life is a series of risks, and it's always good to calculate the ones you can. In my case, I occasionally take Lorazepam for anxiety (which is a lot worse than before my colorectal cancer Dx, even though my treatment went well with a great oncological outcome and no complications). Since benzos are obviously CNS depressants, I knew not to take any if I slept pap-less.

Luckily the power went back on.

But no more yelling and fighting on vacation, OK? It's a rule. Tell the twins they do NOT want me to have to come crash your vacation!

Hah hah!

Thank you for your kind and informative reply.

[amenite]

I take it seriously enough that I now pack my (charged) lithium battery since:

- I have one
- and it fits in the bag
- Bonus - it charges using the machine's power supply, no extra gear needed

After the couple of nights without it in the past few years I've been pretty useless the next day. A bad recipe for travel, especially by car when I'm expected to be the driver.

The wisecrack is some dig there. Rephrase it saying "you and your precious breathing". How cute is that?

[chunkyfrog]

Before cpap, during road trips, I too often felt like road kill.
Eff anyone who is ok with me feeling like that!
Especially on vacation.
One thing that would make a vacation memorable to the kids
would be for Dad to come home in a box.

[dh37]

I take it seriously enough that I now pack my (charged) lithium battery since:

- I have one
- and it fits in the bag
- Bonus - it charges using the machine's power supply, no extra gear needed

What brand/model number is that battery? And what's your set up? Asking because it would be good for this situation, but also I go camping and I've been using lead acid batteries, which are fine as far as it goes, but one crapped out in the middle of a camping trip, which caused me lots of stress. (Maybe I should have trickle-charged it during the 9 months I never used it.)

[amenite]

I have a pair of these Freedom V2 batteries and there are other makes/models out there with the same key features:
- automatically supplies 24v for Resmed machines
- charges using the machine's power supply that you already will be lugging around

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/univer ... attery-kit

For the lead acid batteries at home I always keep them on a Battery Tender. Any battery will discharge over time on its own which will make it fail prematurely. Even if it still takes a charge, complete discharge on a lead acid battery will shorten its useful life and lower its capacity. Keeping the lead acid batteries topped off all the time is the way to go. Battery Tender will do that properly (meaning Battery Tender will not overcharge, which is also damaging to a lead acid battery).

[dh37]

I have a pair of these Freedom V2 batteries and there are other makes/models out there with the same key features:

Thanks (and for the info on lead-acid).

[ChicagoGranny]

even one night with no treatment is pretty nasty

If you don't mind nasty nights, you don't have to take it seriously.