I am new to COPD and was finally placed on oxygen after a PFT test. I have severe shortness of breath and my F1 volume was 53%. I am 72 and have not smoked for 20+ years. I am also badly overweight.
My O2 saturation was running about 85% while at rest and would drop to 65% with any activity. With oxygen (2L/min) my at rest O2 will come up to a maximum of 92% (even if I increase it to 4L/min). I don't have portable but as soon and I say stop the oxygen and go to the bathroom it will be low 80's very shortly.
I bought a Contec CMS50F recording pulse Ox and did a baseline overnight recording of O2 and PR without oxygen. The chart showed very low O2 levels (64%-80%) and a wide fluctuation PR all night (40 - 85).
After I started the O2 therapy I repeated my overnight recording on two different nights. The result showed a fairly steady O2 level of 88% with just a couple of sharp dips for 10 seconds or so but still (not nearly as much) a lot of fluctuation in the PR. My cardio Dr. said my heart is OK.
I also did a formal at home sleep study and the report cam back as severe obstructive sleep apena with an AHI of 58.8. I was not using oxygen during this study.
My question is how can I interpret my Contec overnight graphs? I can not find information to explain how the PR is related to the O2 level. My graphs with oxygen look markedly better than the official ones from the sleep study but without the breathing input I am not sure.
I am not sure I actually have OSA and would like to not use a CPAP. My wife says I do not stop breathing, snore too much, wake suddenly out of breath or get short of breath at night. I do sleep poorly due to chronic sinus issues however and dry mouth from breathing.
Is there any place to learn how to read these graphs?
Thanks so much.