As often is the case here, topics on 1 thing can morph into an entirely different discussion.
So here is a thread dedicated to the topic that was birthed by that dynamic.
Relevant Radio 2pm/sleep disorders
12 responses |
Started by metmike - Sept. 10, 2026, 12:55 p.
This was the last post at the previous thread:
By metmike - Sept. 13, 2026, 9:17 a.m.
I should add that the VAST majority of people have OBSTRUCTIVE sleep apnea which is effectively treated with a CPAP machine much better than CENTRAL sleep apnea.
AI Overview
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Obstructive sleep apnea Symptoms and causes
Dec. 04, 2025
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/obstructive-sleep-apnea/symptoms-causes/syc-20352090
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It's extremely likely that people reading this have sleep apnea(probably obstructive) and have no idea!
If not for my wife being hospitalized in June 2018 with severe bronchitis (and me being with her and noticing the dips in her O2 measurements, which incredibly the people at the hospital denied-a nurse threatened to kick me out because she said that I was upsetting her patient-then the pulmonologist at the sleep clinic insisted she can't have sleep apnea because his exam showed no physical characteristics) we would have no idea today. She would have gone another 8 years without treatment because there is no indication other than her O2 dropping when she lays back. She has an anatomical anomaly with small lungs and a narrow airway that not 1 doctor has ever been able to appreciate.
I would still have no idea too if not for buying/testing my wife with the overnight pulsox meter to make sure her CPAP machine is doing what it's supposed to do(keep her O2 up) and decided to try it on me.
I do not snore and she rarely does. She just has extremely shallow breathing that doesn't stop or get completely blocked. There are numerous variations of sleep apnea that don't fit exactly with the classical cases and cause people with exceptions to never have any idea they have it.
I know of several people that very likely do have it because their wife or they tell me X,Y or Z that match up perfectly with it.......by they won't get tested. In fact, I'm going to copy the link to this thread to 1 of them and change the title.
NOT treating sleep apnea takes away from restorative sleep, can do brain damage and can wreck your body in numerous ways.
My dad had extremely severe sleep apnea(we could hear him snoring on the 1st floor from our 2nd floor bedrooms as kids). Mom saw a story about sleep apnea on tv in the 1980s that caused her to insist that he see a doctor. The last 4 decades of his life featured a CPAP machine, which was extremely likely part of why he lived to be 99 years old!
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I am having issues with the devices that I bought.
The EMO 90 has a problem with the charging and data loading cord(which is resolved at the moment by having it half way plugged in). The EMO 80 only takes batteries and it uses up 2 AA batteries every 3 nights and won't take rechargeable batteries. I needed those devices because they have an alarm to wake me up when I stopped breathing for 2 minutes from fairly rare CENTRAL sleep apnea. Most people don't have a pathological medical condition impacting their brain stem like me and don't need an alarm.
EMO 80
EMO-90
This is the one that I got my wife and used initially that is very reliable but is a bit of a pain hooking up on your wrist/finger to secure at night compared to the EMO products that just go on your finger like a regular pulsox meter. They can fall off at night, where as the one below stays secure.
These are all the cheapest ones out there, that did the job which is what we were looking for. There are numerous other ones that I can't comment on which might be great.
Mike,
Do you think I should order this now from Walmart online before my doc appt on Sep 17th? It says it would arrive on Sep 15 if I order now. That would give me 2 nights to wear it before I see doc. TIA
Larry,
That looks like an excellent choice.
ORDER IT NOW!!!!!
If you bring the data with you to the appointment, it will pay massive dividends on taking the correct path for you.
If it's shows big dips or frequent dips lower, they should be able to immediately justify and schedule a sleep study, maybe even giving you priority (my doctor didn't) because you've already verified the sleep apnea.
Sometimes they will first schedule an overnight pulsox study with THEIR device. You might wait X weeks to schedule it, then Y time to evaluate it, then Z time for the next appointment to discuss it and THEN schedule your sleep study.
If you do this yourself, you should be able to leap frog over all that and go right to the sleep study at this appointment. Even though I did that, it still took me a whopping 6 months before I got my CPAP machine!!!!
Let me know what the data shows here and I can help you interpret that but you are one of the most analytical people I know and you will quickly become an authority yourself.
I have found this field to be rife with incompetence and bad interpretations because of using "averages" and other methods which don't properly assess the condition when it doesn't fit inside the box like my wife, Deb and mine.
However, the vast majority of people that need it, get a CPAP machine........eventually.
As bad as mine was, based on my overnight pulsox meter readings in November, I still had to wait for the sleep study 2 months later, then another 4 months for the CPAP equipment. 6 months of dropping below 80% at nights is totally unacceptable and medical malpractice in my opinion!
My wife had to wait almost as long, with the first 3+ months trying to convince the pulmonologist that she really did have it. I stayed up at night to record her readings while she slept and recorded that with several pages of observations for her doctor but the sleep doctor got mad and told her "tell your husband to never send messages like this to a doctor again"
So I didn't..........I WENT IN PERSON to her next visit. He had decided that he was the all knowing doctor and a no nothing husband wasn't going to tell him how to interpret medicine.
However, I had no idea that we could get an overnight device like this in 2018. In the end, he agreed with me in person at a visit that I was completely right........then he kicked her out as a patient because "her husband was harrassing my nurses"
I assume that you will not get a doctor like this but you will be armed with the empirical data from your overnight pulsox meter.
Mike, I ordered it this afternoon. Expecting it by Tue. Thanks for your advice!
YW, Larry!
I look forward to reading about, analyzing and discussing the data in detail! Other readers here will learn too and hopefully make the same move! Hopefully, you don't have sleep apnea but just confirming that is worth many times the value of this devise. Detecting severe sleep apnea, like mine did has a value beyond any monetary value. Health, especially cognitive health and extending one's life with good health is PRICELESS!!!