Taking SD card to doc for review today, what should I ask?

I have not installed the software necessary at home to read my own card and gain from it all them fancy graphs and what not.

I do have an appointment with my doc today to review, for the first time, what the SD card has on it. My question for all of you more experienced and knowledgeable folks is:

What questions should I be asking about the data?

Start from the beginning...ask for a copy of the report then ask (and follow along) what items on the report they look at. Bring a pen so you can mark those items. You may be surprised what they care about.

But if your doctor's anything like most of them, the most likely thing you'll hear is that 'everything's just fine' regardless of how you feel or what the card says - most doctors have no idea how to read them or what to make of the data! You really need to DL SleepyHead so you can follow your own therapy.

WobblyHeadBob wrote:I have not installed the software necessary at home to read my own card and gain from it all them fancy graphs and what not.

why not?

palerider wrote:

WobblyHeadBob wrote:I have not installed the software necessary at home to read my own card and gain from it all them fancy graphs and what not.

why not?

A complex combination of lazy and procrastination.

Julie wrote:But if your doctor's anything like most of them, the most likely thing you'll hear is that 'everything's just fine' regardless of how you feel or what the card says - most doctors have no idea how to read them or what to make of the data! You really need to DL SleepyHead so you can follow your own therapy.

I agree...You should install sleepyhead and monitor your own therapy

Any ideas as to why the doctor that you bring the information to can't understand what they're looking at?

They rarely bother to learn what it all means... leave it to techs, nurses, their mother, friends, etc. etc!

The more informed you are going into see the doctor, the better chance you will get more out of your visit. You should have questions you have written down so you get to them, and you really should if you have the cpap machine that provides the info a report that you have looked at so you can ask questions about what you don't understand.

You should include how you have been feeling, how your treatment has been working, problems or issues you have had, questions about things you don't understand etc...

Going to the Dr without preparation typically ends up with a non-informed consolation where the doctor talks about only what he wants to talk about. This is true of any doctor's visit.

I've had PCP doctors in the past that had no clue what cpap was about, what a report looks like etc.. I only got to see an actual Sleep Dr recently for the first time and he was amazed at how much info I had, how much I knew how it was working etc... I brought reports both printed and on a thumb drive... he only kept the paper ones as he had no way to look at the thumb drive.