Sleep Apnea and CPAP machines

[seaurchin]

Whatcha know?

I had a sleep study a year or so ago and was diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea. But I was horrified by the CPAP machine and decided to just try pillow wedges etc first.

According to my husband, going by my alleged snoring, my DIY methods haven't worked too well. I also have short term memory problems now, not sure if they're caused by sleep apnea or not but now I'm ready to take it seriously again.

So now I want to get a CPAP machine again and start over.

I would rather just buy a CPAP machine myself and not have to bother with a bunch of annoying doctor appts.

Is that okay?

Any and all input welcome!

 

[seaurchin]

Oh. It looks like I'll have to do another sleep study and get a prescription for the CPAP machine. Anyone have any tips?

 

[Karl_K]

Talk to your doctor, moderate qualifies for apap which does not require another study unless the insurance company insists.
The main difference is with cpap you have a study to determine your pressure, apap the machine adjusts the pressure itself.
Both methods work very well.
An advantage is during a study different masks are available to quickly get the right one.
The mask makers provide trial masks so either way you can try a different mask if the first one don't work for you.

APAP vs CPAP | Sleep Foundation

Obstructive sleep apnea may be treated using an APAP or CPAP machine. Learn the differences between these types of therapy as well as how to get a machine.

www.sleepfoundation.org

 

[seaurchin]

Talk to your doctor, moderate qualifies for apap which does not require another study unless the insurance company insists.
The main difference is with cpap you have a study to determine your pressure, apap the machine adjusts the pressure itself.
Both methods work very well.
An advantage is during a study different masks are available to quickly get the right one.
The mask makers provide trial masks so either way you can try a different mask if the first one don't work for you.

APAP vs CPAP | Sleep Foundation

Obstructive sleep apnea may be treated using an APAP or CPAP machine. Learn the differences between these types of therapy as well as how to get a machine.

www.sleepfoundation.org

Thank you!

 

[Karl_K]

ResMed AirSense 11 is probably the best cpap/apap machines out there.
This place is legit:
It says apap but the cpap and apap machines are the same it just depends on the settings.

AirSense 11 AutoSet Auto-CPAP Machine Package with Heated Humidifier

Check out the deal on AirSense 11 AutoSet Auto-CPAP Machine Package with Heated Humidifier at Direct Home Medical

www.directhomemedical.com

This place is also legit:

ResMed AirSense 11 AutoSet Machine & Humidifier

The AirSense 11 AutoSet is the newest innovation from ResMed, expanding upon the very popular AirSense 10 line. Order now to get yours with free shipping!

www.cpap.com

Avoid the dreamstation or dreamstation2.

 

[Karl_K]

My wifey4ever just got the Airsence 11 and I have had the dreamstation for years.
The dreamstation had a massive recall recently.
The Airsencse 10 is also a very good machine for a little less and has been hugely popular for years.
I think its worth it to spend a little more on the 11 for the added features and improved performance.

 

[Karl_K]

A good starter mask to try first if your nose isn't super ticklish is the airfit p10

AirFit P10 Nasal Pillows CPAP Mask with Headgear

Check out the deal on AirFit P10 Nasal Pillows CPAP Mask with Headgear at Direct Home Medical

www.directhomemedical.com

 

[Karl_K]

I need a mask that covers both my nose and mouth because I have a lot of sinus issues and very high pressures so I use this one:

AirTouch F20 Full Face CPAP Mask with Headgear

Check out the deal on AirTouch F20 Full Face CPAP Mask with Headgear at Direct Home Medical

www.directhomemedical.com

 

[seaurchin]

Thanks. I will print all your posts out to take to my appt. Much appreciated, Karl.

 

[seaurchin]

Oh and feel free, Karl and anyone else, to add more if you have anything.

 

[Karl_K]

Some pointers:
Even if your going to take a nap wear the cpap and if you can not then sleep sitting up.
Buy a couple gallons of distilled water to have on hand for the humidifier on the cpap.
Do not use a cpap oxygen cleaning machine ever.
cpap wipes daily deeper cleaning weekly.

Best Soap To Clean CPAP Mask, Hose, and Equipment - CPAP.com Blog

When cleaning your CPAP mask, tubing, and other machine parts, what is the best soap to use? In this article we explain what is best and why. Keep reading...

www.cpap.com

 

[kenny]

I have had sleep apnea, and I've used a CPAP every night, for going on 20 years.
To me it's a godsend, and I'm an atheist! LOL
I wake up feeling fully rested and energetic, and no longer dose off during the day,

I second what Karl has posted.
I also have the ResMed AirSense 11.
IMO it's the best, and amazingly quiet - a blessing for both me and hubby.
It has a built in cellphone connection thingie that automatically sends my usage data to my Dr. and insurance company.
If I don't use it enough they stop paying for it and the supplies they ship every few months, filters, hoses, mask, water tank etc.

I hear around half of the folks who get a CPAP stop using it.
I blame not trying all the various mask designs to find one they like the best.

Some masks cover both your mouth and nose.
I have the one Karl mentioned that's nose-only.
Since it doesn't also cover the mouth, I need a separate chin strap to keep my mouth closed.
Without it I'd wake up with a dry throat from breathing through my mouth.

Be sure to keep up with proper cleaning and filter changes.
Years ago I had no insurance and developed a chronic lung gunk thing that lasted years.
My doctor couldn't resolve figure it out.
When I got this new AirSense 11 and regular supplies it went away completely.

Over the years I've had a few sleep studies.
My most recent study resulted in increasing the pressure from 10 to 11.
I mention this so you don't go forever on the same old pressure, assuming it never changes.

Get it checked, perhaps every 5 or 10 years.
The patient themselves can't adjust it - the medical folks have give you a sleep study to determine the pressure needed so you stop having breathing-cessation-events as you sleep.

Please take your sleep apnea seriously.
It can cause severe health problems, including death, and a decline in your mental state.

 

[kenny]

Oh yeah.

I recently got a hose that has heating coils in it.
My old hoses didn't so water condensed in the hose as I slept.
If the room was cold enough thecondensed water built up in the tube.
It would settled in the tubes lowest part.
Then it would start to gurgle, and wake me up.
I had to get up, disconnect the hose and spin it around over my head to accelerate out the built up water.
GRRR!

Now, with a heated tube, the air temp (and resulting dew point) is sufficient to prevent condensation of water inside the tube.

I don't buy distilled water for the tank.
We use the reverse osmosis water from our kitchen sink's filter.

This one:

Amazon.com

It was easy to install myself.
I like this design since there is no water tank that eventually rusts and fails.
Instead of a pressurized tank that pushes the water up to the faucet, it has a pump.
This way the water you get from it is always fresh, since it didn't sit around in a pressurized tank.

 

[autumngems]

They truly are very helpful, I and hubby have had one for years. I have appt next week for another sleep study, I really need a new machine.

 

[lala646]

I have very mild sleep apnea (6 episodes per hour is what they diagnosed), and I just started using a CPAP in August hoping to improve the quality of my sleep since I too have been having a lot of brain fog that I believe is being caused by poor sleep. My insurance is paying for the Airsense 11 that Karl linked to. I've found it easy to use, but have had the doctor adjust the pressure settings once already, but it's been fairly smooth sailing. Happy to try to answer any questions you might have.

 

[MMtwo]

I was diagnosed with mild a year or so ago - 8 AHI. I bought my own machine Resmed 10 (renegade me, bought for 275 with 15 hours from Marketplace) and joined a forum and tweaked the settings once I figured out how to do so. Look for "OSCAR" and cpap to find the forum. The prescription was a common APAP setting which you can learn how to set yourself. I bought all new hoses and masks and cleaned it before use. I was fitted for masks and went through a few. My sleep doc was onboard with the shenanigans. I would pay out of pocket anyway, so I would rather own it outright.

I now have AHI under 1 and sleep pretty well. The hardest part was choosing a mask.
My sleep doc said some patients "nerd out" and go all in to learn all about it. Others don't care to be bored with the details at all, just want to know things are working. Not sure either is wrong.

I hope you find this brings you rest and good sleep.

 

[kenny]

@MMtwo If I understand your post, your doctor diagnosed you and set your CPAP's pressure to 8.
But now you have changed the pressure to 1, justifying it with, "I now have AHI under 1 and sleep pretty well."

Unless I was an MD who is a specialist in Sleep Apnea I wouldn't trust my own impression of "sleeping pretty well" to change my doctor's prescription from 8 to 1.

Years ago my original CPAP Rx was 10.
I got another sleep study last year and they changed it from 10 to 11.

A real sleep study isn't just asking you whether you sleep pretty well.
It's a very complicated, comprehensive and technical medical test.
They monitor several things that you can't monitor.
Besides all the electrodes they put on you, a trained human watches and listens to you sleep via microphone and video camera.
You and I don't have the training, the costly equipment, plus ... you and I are busy sleeping.

It's a free country, but I'd recommend getting another sleep study.
See whether your doctor recommends a setting of 1.

 

[Karl_K]

@kenny i had to read it twice.....
8 cpap means the machine is at a fixed pressure of 8 after the ramp up.
APAP means the machine itself sets the pressure and varies it as needed.
APAP works better for some people who have a large swing in needed pressure based on sleep position.
So it was changed from 8 cpap to APAP

I use bipap which is 2 pressures inhale/exhale, 18/14 for me.
Which is the third type.

 

[MMtwo]

@kenny
Not quite...the 8 AHI = breathing issues per hour at the sleep study.
I set my machine to my prescription. After time, I honed in tighter to the pressures that work for me. It does a better job of keeping it in check and I don't have as many arousals from a zealous pressure that is too high.

Now it is usually under 1 AHI per hour. I did check in with the Sleep Clinic on follow up and she was on board. She even changed my script to match how I tweaked the settings. I just brought up the lower end of pressure from 5 to 7, and the top down from really flipping high to the max the APAP actually uses, for me, I am always under 10. . This cuts down on blasts from a zealous machine and helps me sleep with less interruption.

I agree one should not muck about in things they don't understand, but I had guidance and my Doc's support.

My insurance did not pay for an in office study, they just had me test at home, said "Yup, you have mild apnea. Here is the standard APAP setting range...bye"

So this print out if from the Oscar app, and show me exactly how much pressure is
being used and that is is well controlled. Under five events per hour is "normal" sleep.

 

[kenny]

Opps, sorry guys.
My bad.

I just learned something.
Thanks.

I haven't gone that deeply into the details.

 

[MMtwo]

Opps, sorry guys.
My bad.

I just learned something.
Thanks.

I haven't gone that deeply into the details.

Oh no worries at all. AT ALL. I appreciate you watching out for other folks. I nerd out on stuff, but people don't need to go to extremes.

 

[seaurchin]

Finally got my CPAP machine today. After an infuriating mess with the doctor's office/insurance the last time I tried this a few years ago, I just bought it on my own, with the doctor's prescription. The doctor's office still turned it into my insurance and ordered me one on their own this time too, even after I clearly told them not to. So I had to straighten out that mess too and get it cancelled, just like last time but at a different location and with a different doctor.

Does anyone know why the doctors (two) seem so adamant about having the equipment sent to you through your insurance without your consent? WTH? I am confused and a bit suspicious now tbh but it could just be a coincidence or something. Thoughts?

I just don't feel like jumping through all their hoops for something that only costs $1,000 in the first place. Not that $1,000 is anything to sneeze at but doesn't seem like much for a longterm and important piece of medical equipment. They also seem to like to rent them, which I don't think makes any sense, considering the price. Why would you rent something that only costs $1,000 to own outright? So I'm happier to buy it myself and be left alone. Am I missing something or what?

Anyway, it looks complicated and annoying so I will let my husband plug me in haha.

I'll say more when I'm familiar enough with it to have any idea what it going on. I'm trying not to get my hopes up but I do hope it will fix my short term memory loss.

Thanks for all the help so far. I wanted y'all to know that husband read the whole thread and considered it when ordering and we appreciate it muchly.

I realize I sound a bit ridic here but he's much more of a "medical" person than me so I was happy with his offer to handle it. Thanks, all!

 

[seaurchin]

Ta-da! If I recall correctly, it is much smaller than the one I briefly tried a few years ago. Also, I don't recall the nasal thing with the pillows last time. I had a larger mask. This set up is so tiny it's almost cute! Wish me luck?

P.S. We ran up to the store a while ago for distilled water.

Hopefully, I'll soon be able to understand the posts on this thread better!

 

[autumngems]

Ta-da! If I recall correctly, it is much smaller than the one I briefly tried a few years ago. Also, I don't recall the nasal thing with the pillows last time. I had a larger mask. This set up is so tiny it's almost cute! Wish me luck?

P.S. We ran up to the store a while ago for distilled water.

Hopefully, I'll soon be able to understand the posts on this thread better!

Good for you, I just finished my sleep study and I am getting a new CPAP, yeah! Just waiting for the office to call me for appt.

 

[seaurchin]

I tolerated it for four hours last night, then it got uncomfortable so I decided that was enough for the first night.

It was much quieter than the machine I tried briefly a few years ago. Either they’ve improved a lot or i just got the cheap model last time!

 

[MMtwo]

Just throwing this here: CPAP.com has a holiday deal for 399 cash price (no insurance) for the card to cloud model resmed 10.

 

[seaurchin]

I had to keep at it but now I can tolerate the CPAP machine mostly all night, every night. Once in a while I pull it off when I'm half asleep but then my honey soon tells me to put it back on. I had no idea how much my purring woke him up!

I have noticed that I have a lot more energy. It snuck up on me. I just seem to get a lot more done.

Thanks, all.

 

[canuk-gal]

I had to keep at it but now I can tolerate the CPAP machine mostly all night, every night. Once in a while I pull it off when I'm half asleep but then my honey soon tells me to put it back on. I had no idea how much my purring woke him up!

I have noticed that I have a lot more energy. It snuck up on me. I just seem to get a lot more done.

Thanks, all.

Great! Your CV system thanks you!

cheers--Sharon