mountainprincess

Thanks I really appreciate the advice. I live in the US in Wyoming and do have insurance. My insurance does seem to be pretty good, I haven't had to preauth any of the services I have had. I also checked and they pay 80% of DME. At this point I guess it's just a wait and see the doc situation. Unfortunately I don't know how long that will take as he comes into town from Nevada and only comes in a couple weeks a month.

I was also thinking that if they tried to give me the cpap that they must have enough information to make a diagnosis. I am glad to hear that I should be able to do a home trial. Yesterday I was adamant i was never using a cpap. Today i have decided that if it would help me breath and I could try it at home it might work out.

Thanks for the caring words sophie. I have done spirometry twice now. The first time was a basic test and the second test was more in depth. I'm still waiting for the results on the second set of pulmonary function tests.

I also forgot to mention in my original post that the difficulty breathing during the day is really my only complaint. I have a little bit of an increased heart beat off and on but really that's it. I'm not overly fatigued. I'm not falling asleep during the day. I don't feel like i have to have a nap every day and really don't enjoy napping. I don't have problems sleeping and I rarely wake up during the night. My husband used to complain about my horrible snoring and said i could rock the house. He also said i used to gasp for breath in the middle of the night too. However he says i have quit snoring or gasping in at least the last 3 months.

Hello I am new here and to Sleep Apnea. I had a horrid sleep study this week that was very traumatizing and am waiting to hear back from the doctor. My question though is do any of you have shortness of breath during the day from the sleep apnea? I went into my doctor 2 months ago for shortness of breath and after chest xrays, an EKG, and some pulmonary testing I was referred to a pulmonologist. I seen the pulmonologist a month ago and he wanted a CT scan, Echocardiogram, more pulmonary testing, and a sleep study. The sleep study was the last thing on my list and I completed it Monday night. It was supposed to be a split study, but it didn't go well. I was anxious and scared from the beginning and the employee running the sleep lab that night was less than friendly. I finally fell asleep around 11 and was abruptly woken up at 1 saying I had qualified for a CPAP and we needed to try it out. He put the full mask on me, the ResMed Mirage Quattro, and strapped me in. The moment he strapped me in I knew it wasn't going to be good. Instantly my heart was racing and I was having even more problems breathing. He then turned it on and it got even worse. I seemed to be suffocating even though the employee kept telling me that "I couldn't be suffocating because it was air coming into the machine". He kept asking me if I was okay and I kept telling him no. So then he said he needed to turn the pressure up that this would help. It didn't and I ended up pulling the mask off. He asked me if I wanted to try the nasal one and I said sure. He brought me in a Phillips DreamWear Nasal lab mask, but then proceeded to tell me that it wouldn't work because I was a mouth breather. He put it on anyway and that was even worse! I literally ended up ripping it off my face. The gentleman working just kept telling me that this is the Gold Standard to treat sleep apnea and this were the only two types of masks available and I jsut needed to try it. He didn't get it, I wasn't trying ot be difficult it was literally causing me to freak out. I ended up telling him no that I wouldn't be trying it that night. He said he would then continue the sleep study as a diagnostic study but that my doc would certainly be requiring me to come back when the CPAP was ordered. Then I was so upset that I really couldn't breath and I couldn't go back to sleep. I laid in bed watching TV, tossing and turning, and intermediately playing on my Kindle until 4 am when he appeared back in my room to ask if I was okay. At which time I told him no I wasn't okay and that I wanted to go home. He told me that he only had 2 hours of study time and could I just stay another hour to get that time. I told him that it wouldn't do me any good to stay the other hour because I wasn't going back to sleep and I wanted to go home. At which time he finally came in and unplugged me. I know have such anxiety over the sleep clinic there is no way I can ever even consider going back. I am concerned for what the pulmonologist is going to tell me about all my test results and am just not convinced that the sleep apnea is causing my daytime shortness of breath. Any advice or information you have to give would really be helpful. Thanks!