Need Support

I'm going to MD tomorrow to beg for her to write me a script for Remstar Auto with C-Flex. Too many problems with bloating, exhaling, etc.

Just need some encouragement, right now. Feeling a little nervous, not sure how to approach the subject to ask. Already talked to insurance and they said they would pay for whatever she ordered.

I am also going to tell her I'm not going to use the DMES the clinic sent me to. She, the DMES, rubs me the wrong way and I just am too crabby to be dealing with that on top of this OSA.

Please give me some encouragement. Also received the results of my sleep study back today. I had to track them down, no one even sent them to my doctor. I tracked them down and picked up a copy and told them to send my MD a copy right away. I will bring my copy tomorrow, just in case.

Any help in understanding the results would be appreciated also.

Thanks,

Heidi

Heidi,

Tell her that you are a member of an online apnea forum and have discussed the problems you are having with many people who have experienced and solved these same problems. Tell her that after a lot of thought and discussion about your particular problems (list them to her) it has been recommended to you that you get an auto-pap with C-flex. Tell her this has actually worked to solve these problems for the many people you have talked to. Also tell her you talked to your insurance company and they said they would cover whatever she prescribed. Ask her to please right you a prescription for a Remstar Auto with C-flex. I bet you'll have good luck convincing her.

And if all else fails, tell her you'll have your friend Liam call up every hour, on the hour, and tell her an increasingly hideous joke until she BEGS you to take the prescription, just to make it stop, please, for heaven's sake have mercy make it stop!

Really, if your doc is worth anything she'll listen to what you have to say. She *MAY* have personal bias against one treatment or another. The key is to remember your doctor is just another person doing a job. If you just roll over and accept what you're told, or if you go so far in the other direction that you insult the doctor, implying she doesn't know what she's doing, you won't get anywhere.

I find with my doctors, if I talk to them like people, they talk to me like a person. And it works best if I treat the exchange as I would a discussion with a mechanic or a plumber or any other expert in a field, as in "Tell me what my options are, and we can discuss the benefits of each and what you recommend, but in the end, I'm going to decide whether to get lubed" (That is, of course, the mechanic. I would never tell my doctor whether I was planning on getting lubed.)

But I'm getting off the topic again. Just make sure you're both polite and firm, and I think you'll do fine.

(By the way, I don't know you, and I don't mean this to be sexist. I'm a 6'1" 39 year old male, I never have a problem being too meak, but both my ex-wife and my current (the love of my life) tell me that as a woman in our society, sometimes it's hard to assert yourself to someone in authority. I don't like the idea, but I'm coming to understand that this may be an issue for some women. If it is not for you, then my advice above was terribly obvious and perhaps even a little bit condescending. If so, my apologies.)

Liam, who really would prefer not to offend anyone... unless it's intentional, or he's too lazy to shower.

Good advice, Wading. That's right - JUST ASK! You'd be surprised! Good Luck. Jen

i agree with Liam, your MD will appreciate that you did your homework.
and she surely wants you to get better, and if the current apparatus isn't tolerated well, breaching the subject will show her you are actively trying to work on getting better.
good luck, we'll be thinking about you. and let us know how it goes.
tania

Remind her that the Remstar Auto with C-Flex can always be configured exactly like your current fixed pressure C-Flex machine.

That's a fall-back plan that gets you identical C-Flex therapy to what you have now. With that fall-back plan you only stand to gain or break even at the very worst.

Hi Heidi,


Tell her the truth.

Heidi-
You may just discover that even as a novice, you know more than your doctor about your problem. I have only been on CPAP since November and had a doctor's appt. Monday. He asked how treatment was going and in the discussion, I discovered how little he knew. I probably spent 10 minutes educating him and he was happy to learn more. I consider him an excellent doctor, but he can't know everything.

Just go in with your information and be firm about your wants and needs. You will come out ahead. Please let us know! Good luck.
Dan

Good luck, Heidi! Remember that your doctor puts her trousers/slacks on the same way we all do! She works for you!!!

-SWS wrote:Good luck, Heidi! Remember that your doctor puts her trousers/slacks on the same way we all do! She works for you!!!

Oh, yeah, great advice. What if her doctor is a nudist? Then where will she be?

Liam, who is (what a shock) awake at 12:30am YET AGAIN.

I was just thinking about how much time I watch other people in my house sleep.

I can be watching TV, turn to look at my husband and he is zonked out. I feel like the "night watchman".

I have four sons, three at home 9, 5, and 3 years old. Just watching everyone sleep while I struggle so much is just amazing to me. They fall asleep with such ease and maybe toss and turn, but no one gets up to go to the bathroom. They don't get up and walk around the house....I'm the only one who makes sure everyone is covered up and the cows aren't out (I'm a farm wife). I don't know why but in the middle of the night, I always look out the window to check on the cows.

Any who!!! I love all of you guys, you are great!

Heidi, who works the night shift at home.

Liam1965 wrote:Oh, yeah, great advice. What if her doctor is a nudist? Then where will she be?

Liam, who is (what a shock) awake at 12:30am YET AGAIN.

Good point, Liam! Better make an exception to that statement for the rare case of nudist doctor's: "Remember that your doctor watches her patients put on their trousers/slacks almost the same way we would if we were in her shoes."
____________________________________________________________
-SWS, who wonders why a perfectly good comedian wastes his time programming software when it just won't laugh back

P.S. Good luck, again, Heidi!

Heidi - let us know how it went. Jen