21 January 2008
MSLT & Pulse Ox
Posted by Les under: Dr Appointments; Narcolepsy; Sleep Apnea; Tests; cardiac .
Well I saw Dr. D on Friday. She said that (like this was any big surprise), she had a hard time reading my test. 1. I do fall asleep faster than the normal person. B. I apparently don’t have sleep apnea, but because my oxygen level drops so low when I am sleeping, that the CPAP does bring my oxygen level back up. but the big one… 3… I don’t go into REM sleep. I didn’t go into REM the whole night or any of the day. So, they don’t know if I am just early narcolepsy or for now, she is calling it idopathic hypersomnia. Basically I sleep a lot and they don’t know why. My question was… Doesn’t lack of REM make you crazy??? and she said we aren’t going there 
I said this would explain 2 things… A. why I think I only sleep about twice - 3 times a week and 2. When I do, why they are so vivid and realistic that I can tell you every detail.
I have been referred back to the Pulmonologist, which whom I already have an appointment a week from tomorrow. She didn’t even touch the pulse ox either. The part there that I found interesting was that my heart rate range was from 44 - 180. She commented that the pulse ox isn’t real reliable for that. I said, no, but that I had told the cardiologist my heart would race and the event monitor never picked anything up. It sounds like the pulse ox did!!! (by the way, a pulse ox is a monitor that monitors your oxygen level. I forget that not everyone is a Respiratory Therapist and knows the lingo ;)) My resting O2 (oxygen) level before I went to sleep was only 93%, which is not too low, but not real great either. You want it to be above 90%, and being at 7K feet, I expect it to run closer to 90%. I did have to giggle though, cuz my therapist said she had the results and she didn’t know how to read them, and I said, but I do. 
I am waiting til I see Dr. P, but from what I saw, I won’t be going on O2, unless they take me off cpap. I dropped a couple of times below 90%, but nothing to worry about. Now when I go up to Divide next month and Woodland Park in April, that will be a different story… as I will be at 9.5K feet