NewMeNewbie
Recording the Z's or Lack Thereof
Oct 05, 2010
I think the sleep study requirement has been the most vexing of pre-operative preparations. Since I’m a self-pay patient, I have looked for things I can ask my insurance to cover. My Kaiser PCP evaluated me for sleep apnea and made the referral for the study. I was under the impression my PCP made those decisions. However, after waiting 10 days to hear from them for scheduling, I found out I would have to see a Kaiser pulmonologist to determine whether I really needed the sleep study or not. And, the appointment wouldn’t be available for six weeks. So, I was looking at waiting six weeks to find out whether a second doctor would authorize the sleep study which I needed regardless for the WLS. It was a gamble with my time I didn’t want to take.
My surgeon’s office made a referral to a non-Kaiser physician who provided the home sleep study test. So, I met with him yesterday which was an experience in and of itself. He was an old rambler who digressed a great deal and was already assuming I had sleep apnea. I pointed out to him the purpose of the take home test was to determine this.
Last night I hooked myself up to this little device which was not nearly as intrusive as I thought it might be. It’s amazing how it could record my breathing and pulse all night. Though everything remained intact, it took me longer to disentangle myself than it did to put it on. I drove back to Portland and they downloaded the information from the device. I eagerly awaited the result because the next huge dilemma could be getting a CPAP from Kaiser. It turns out I’m borderline. For someone with a straightforward personality, I don’t seem to have straightforward situations. I learned there is an apnea-hvpopnic index (AHI) scale of sleep apnea based on the number of obstructive events per hour.
Mild OSA = 5-15
Moderate OSA = 15-30
Severe >30
An index of 5 provides some justification for considering therapy. I’m a six so I have it, but it’s very mild. I don’t know if my WLS surgeon will require me to have a CPAP or not. I would think not. I did fine with my fibula fracture surgery in 2005. I E-mailed my surgeon’s hand-holder who said my surgeon would make a decision when I meet with her. So, I guess I’ll wait for that. I did keep that Kaiser appointment as a back-up. I’ll get the documentation from my recent sleep study and provide it to him to see if he can just use that for assessing a treatment plan versus going through a formal sleep study. I’m saving Kaiser money!
Next appointment is Friday for REE (resting energy expenditure) test.
