Just diagnosed....some help needed

Following an at home sleep test administered by NovaSom I've been told I have apnea. I am a bit overwhelmed with the amount of information out there to try and take in. I do have some specific questions I hope that some of the great users here may be able to help me with.

I'm in a bit of a time crunch. My insurance resets on 1/1, so if I have to buy a CPAP I''d really rather pay 20% of the cost and not the 100% I'd have to pay after 1/1.

My first question is about the CPAP and APAP. NovaSom wants to send an APAP unit to test what pressure I need. They want me to do a 4 day test, then send it back. With the holiday I'm concerned all won't be done by 12/31. If I were to get an APAP would it be necessary to do the 4 day test? Or would the APAP auto adjust and make the further testing unnecessary?

I know this is a broad question, but are there any head and shoulders above the rest preferred machines? The humidity controls sound like something I would for sure like.

I'm more of a side sleeper. Is there certain equipment that might accommodate that better?

I'm sure I will have further questions, but these are top of mind for me and my desire to save a boatload of money on the machine itself.

Thanks for any help!

The first thing is to call your insurance and try to get answers as to who (DME) they cover.
Then you need to call them and ask if they have the one you want in stock.

Others will come along and give you names.

Get an APAP - tell who ever is writing the prescription to put in "Pressure range 4-20 cm H2O, leak and efficacy data and mask of patients choice"
That way you are assured to get an apap with data.

Hi... read this first...

http://maskarrayed.wordpress.com/

Now, you need to know that an Auto (Apap) machine can also be set (by you) to be a plain Cpap, but a Cpap only machine is just that and won't do Apap. And if your insce. allows it, you can buy online, submit the invoice and pay that way (lots cheaper too!). You'll need to scan your prescription in of course.

And humidifiers come with machines (or are already integrated) and you set those controls separately. It's important to remember that humidity is a 'comfort' thing, not therapy as such, so you may or may not want some, any or none depending on your local climate (Seattle vs Arizona), whether it's winter and the central heating's dried everything out, or whether you become congested from too much humidity if unneeded, in which case you can turn it down or off. And you can get hose heaters for winter or cold rooms to augment the machine's heat input (all are a bit different).

You can titrate yourself on an autopap as to where pressure settings look and feel good, based on your MD's prescription, but too often doctors (not 'sleep doctors') just tell dealers (DMEs) to leave things wide open at the machine default #'s (4 and 20), and that's when you need to do your own work as no one can reasonably breathe at 4, but more like 7 or so. But depending on your MDs script, I'd first see how you feel on that (unless they've left it at 4-20) for a while to get a picture of how things go.

The most problematic thing in most cases is finding the right mask for you... and that can be a matter of trying more than a couple, and getting the right size, fit and comfort, too often not set up well by dealers. You may get lucky and have a good DME who lets you try lots of different masks on (while lying down as your face changes a lot then), but if not you may get lucky with your first, but lucky would be the word (not that common). Also, you need to know if you sleep with your mouth open or not as that will dictate if you need 'just' a nasal mask, or a full face one (NOT the 'Total' style that covers your face) which is like a nasal one, but extends lower to just cover your mouth. And there are hybrid styles too... you can look at the whole variety on Cpap.com with pix, reviews, etc. etc. to help, plus they happen to have a system where you can pay a small fee to try different masks at home and replace them afterward... something other online DME's don't necessarily do. There's more, but feel free to ask when questions come up.

Side sleeping is good (for OSA/Cpap) vs back sleeping which provokes more apneas. So Google Pap Pillow and see what you think - it's made to work with masks, though there are other types of things used as well.

And I have to go feed the cat! Good luck, don't be in too much of a hurry to get set up (may only disappoint you if things don't immediately go smoothly), but stay positive, and welcome to the forum.

Oh.. and the most important thing (from all points of view) would be to download (for free) SleepyHead - a program to monitor your progress daily, wkly, etc. with lots of great info. to help you know what's working and not, and why. You can DL it from Pugsy's note - first one the forum page above the actual threads like this one (and it works on Macs too - others don't).

Wow, thank you both so much for the quick and thorough replies.

I'll surely check out the resources listed. Sorry if I sound like I'm really rushing things. I'm just hoping to get the major initial expenses done before the end of the year just due to my lousy insurance.

I'll go through with the test and see what my insurance allows equipment wise.

Thank you again!

**Well thanks to your advice I contacted my insurance co. and they told me the equipment would be a rental for the first few months, then purchased if it was deemed necessary. So my hopes of buying the equipment before years end are dashed.

IF you don't go through your insce at all, but instead opt to buy outright (SO much cheaper), you might look at prices on Cpap.com for e.g. the Air Sense 10, and/or just the Autoset S9, and/or we could probably help find you a just-less than new machine that would still give data, etc. for a lot less... ??

Julie wrote:IF you don't go through your insce at all, but instead opt to buy outright (SO much cheaper), you might look at prices on Cpap.com for e.g. the Air Sense 10, and/or just the Autoset S9, and/or we could probably help find you a just-less than new machine that would still give data, etc. for a lot less... ??

Excellent, that may very well be the way I go. Come January when my insurance resets I'm stuck paying 100% until I hit my $4k deductible anyway. Thanks for the great advice and the warm welcome.

Anytime.

Welcome. Sorry you had to join us.

Check the links in my signature line. One of the pages down underneath is a list of recommended CPAP machines.