broke, on medicaid, and stuck with a RESmart...

which, though not technically a "brick" from what im reading, is very close to one.. anyway, i cannot breathe right, keep having to take gasping breaths by lifting the mask periodically when im not sleeping (takes me forever, literally hours to fall asleep and if i have to stop to do something like go to the bathroom or put a mask on i have to start the whole falling asleep thing over... so i spend half my "compliance hours" with the mask on awake..) it must be doing something right since the thing says i have an AHI of 3.9 now, no clue what it was before, since my doc moved away between sleep study and follow up ::eyeroll and much drama:: so i never even got a peek at my results other than "you need a cpap" and a request to come in and do the titration. I slept pretty well for the titration and even the first night here at home.. but i just feel like im WORKING to get air in... i thought that was the opposite of the point here? Help? I still dont have an appt with a new doc so no help there, prior history says it will be months before i get in, since i had to switch practices and everything, IF they will take me at all..::sigh:: i hate being broke and relying on medicaid but there it is.

I personally am not knowledgeable enough to help anyone but I can tell you, before the ones that can get here, that you need to go into your control panel and list your machines, your mask. People need to know what you are using and what your pressure is, etc in order to help you

Good Luck

Go to User Ctl Panel under main logo and fill in the Profile with most complete name & model # you can for your machine, and the name and type of mask you're using, as well as your pressure settings. Also, if you use the ramp feature (for how long at what setting?). Then we'll have something to go on to try and help... and I'm sure we can as there are many very experienced and knowledgable people here. Welcome!

Hmm, your system doesnt like me. It let me select my equipment and save but both on picture AND text, it will only show the mask...

If your machine's out of date (no longer sold except 2nd hand) then it won't be on the list to appear, but you can still describe it in whatever detail and #'s you have for it, though I suspect it's not as important as the fact your setting of 6 is quite low and probably difficult to breathe at for anyone. Do you know how to raise the pressure on your machine? If not, someone here should, but they must have good I.D. of it... names are often on the top, model #'s underneath the machine. See what you can come up with.

I have a thought about the "doctor moved away" part. In theory--in theory--you are entitled to get a copy of your sleep study. I don't know what the eyeroll and much drama consists of, but I suspect it might make accessing those records more difficult. Was your sleep study done at a facility different from that of the doctor who moved away? Does the office where your doctor used to work still exist? If so, try requesting the sleep study from both those places. If not, can you track your doctor down in the new place (assuming they're not in jail or something)? I know how to do that. Even doctors who lose their licenses have to maintain records.

Also, it sounds like you didn't have a split-night study. You had a study and then a separate titration. The report from the titration might be as helpful for your purposes as the initial study.

magdalene74 wrote:Hmm, your system doesnt like me. It let me select my equipment and save but both on picture AND text, it will only show the mask...

Which of the following pictures looks the most like the CPAP you are using:

RESmart CPAP with RESlex (which is NOT sold by cpap.com, and hence is NOT on the list of "machines" you can choose in the Machine pull down list):


RESmed S9 CPAP with EPR:


PR REMstar System One Series 60 CPAP with C-Flex:


My guess is that you are using the RESmart CPAP with RESlex. Since cpap.com does not sell that machine, it is not on the available list of machines. So enter "RESsmart CPAP with RESlex" as text in the additional commments.

From the specification information that I can find on line about the REMsmart, it does appear that this machine gives you limited, but useful efficacy data.

You do get an overall AHI number, but it's not broken down into types and there's no information about when the events occured. (But an overall AHI number is far better than nothing.) But you don't get any Leak data. In other words, the data the REMsmart gathers is similar to the data gathered by the Resmed S9 Escape Auto.

I may be all wet but what you describe sounds like it might be helped by
sitting with mask and machine on for a while before sleep and watching TV, or reading.
Anything to take your mind off the mask and the air pressure.
Also, a mask liner might help with making the mask quieter and more comfortable.