I believe this is how most sleep apneics start out ; Snoring . Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome ( UARS ).
Inspiratory Flow Limitation ( IFL ). But her numbers don ’ t meet our criteria for a diagnosis of SDB , so every healthcare practitioner out there writes off her sleep study as another dead end . EXCEPT YOU .
without food , days without water , but only minutes without oxygen . You gotta breathe ! Life depends on it . Early on , with IFL and UARS , the body has yet to be sensitized to abrupt or severe changes in O2 saturation , so minimal closures in our airway bring about minor changes in breathing and oxygen levels , which then triggers our brains , our pituitary glands , to give us that jolt of adrenalin , and our airways respond by contracting and dilating , and we resume normal breathing until it happens again . This patient arouses and has disrupted sleep and all the ill effects the same as a severe
sleep apneic , yet she has few detectable apneas or hypopneas , so she does NOT get diagnosed with sleep disordered breathing . It ’ s a crack in our system , and many patients , regrettably , fall through it . Payers set guidelines and levels and markers about everything . I get it .
You ’ ve got to draw the line somewhere . I just happen to think they ’ ve drawn it in the wrong place when they decide who they ’ ll pay to treat when it comes to sleep disordered breathing .
So you ’ ve got to take this on yourself , head on . Convince the patient that you may have a solution to her problem . Yes , that little piece of plastic CAN make a huge difference in how you sleep , oxygenate , and feel . We hear it every day in our office , “ Man , when I first came in , I thought this was all a bunch of BS … but , that little piece of plastic has changed my life !”
Make it happen . Change a life today .