CPAP NEWBIE

My name is Marcus i am from Darwin NT Australia i am 31 years old

so since my late teens I have had sleep apnoea that was undiagnosed but I never did anything about till I hit 30 years old but I knew I had it and so many that witnessed me sleeping also for years told me I must have OSA , I did a sleep study late last year and was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnoea I have started CPAP treatment 2 months ago I purchased a Resmed S9 auto machine not sure on the correct model will add more details later when I get a chance also have a full face mask $2500 not cheap an expense I wish I could have avoided as don't like doctors that much for various personal reasons and i hate overpriced medical equipment .

for the money i have spent on doctors/specialist/sleep study have totalled to just over $5000 all for only a small improvement sleep quality i have nearly reached a point where i wanna throw this machine in bin and just give up as it seems to cause more discomfort than improving the way i feel . the sleep specialist i was seeing is a complete Wanker hardly talks during a consultation and only answers my questions very vaguely and just hands me a script and charges $400 for not even 5 minutes of work .

in my home city we only have 2 choices for sleep apnoea equipment the first company i went to see for a CPAP machine was a place called CLM Sleep Co they are a complete joke in terms of customer service all they gave a shit about was selling a machine as quick as possible and also tried to sell me the software that reads my machines downloads for $300 luckily it can be downloaded for free on the net i was so disgusted in there service the Hire/Trial machine they tried to get me onto was going to cost $500 for the month and when she bought out a machine that was dirty and hoses and mask that looked like they still had someone elses druel inside them YUK . the place i see now called Air Liqud is much better and are more helpful .

where do i start ? how can i make this work for me ? 2 months now and feel no better than i did without CPAP . it seems if i need to get proper treatment i need to research it and do it my self , i am on the verge of throwing all this in the bin so i hope i can get some ideas from this forum in my quest to a good nights sleep free from morning headaches , body aches , daytime sleppyness ,and real bad mood swings

Hi - you start by telling us what machine and mask you're using now - the full names and model #s if possible (not just e.g. "ResMed") and tell us what your pressures are set at, and if you use the ramp feature or not, and how many hours you sleep with the mask, and what (in detail) you have problems with mask-wise or anything else... and that's how we can begin to help - those things give us a jumping off place. You must register first, then go to the tiny line under the cpaptalk logo that says 'User Control Panel', then to Profile, and fill in your equipment - in text please, and it will then auto appear under all your notes in future... and try to stay with this one thread too, makes it easier to follow your progress.

So welcome - you'll find other Aussies here too, and you can compare notes.

Julie wrote:Hi - you start by telling us what machine and mask you're using now - the full names and model #s if possible (not just e.g. "ResMed") and tell us what your pressures are set at, and if you use the ramp feature or not, and how many hours you sleep with the mask, and what (in detail) you have problems with mask-wise or anything else... and that's how we can begin to help - those things give us a jumping off place. You must register first, then go to the tiny line under the cpaptalk logo that says 'User Control Panel', then to Profile, and fill in your equipment - in text please, and it will then auto appear under all your notes in future... and try to stay with this one thread too, makes it easier to follow your progress.

So welcome - you'll find other Aussies here too, and you can compare notes.

thanks i will update all my info tonight when i get home from work

I understand your frustration. My experience is the same as yours, the Dr and suppliers are there to make money! They have the whole medical system setup to extract the maximum amount of money out of you and your insurance company.

If you are paying for everything out of pocket I would recommend looking around for a used CPAP. I would also recommend you get and save a copy of your prescription from your doctor. This will be helpful in purchasing supplies via mail order.

I completely agree with you that the best way to treat your OSA is to take charge of educating yourself and take an active role in your treatment. The newer CPAPs that allow you to download and review your sleep data are a great tool for optimizing your use of the CPAP.

I would guess the majority of members on this board had some sort of rocky start with their CPAPs... I know I did. 10 years later I am very happy I persevered! My CPAP has helped me immensely over the years!

You have a great resource on this forum... make use of it!

well have put up my equipment , I was prescribed an RESMED S9 auto that I purchased , I don't use a humidifier as Darwin my home town is a tropical eviornment always high humidity , I haven't managed to do a download of my data off the machine yet but I will post here once I have those results . hoping to get some good advice to improve my sleep my machine data tells me my AHI is 5.0 most nights sometimes hitting the 3.8 AHI , but I need to download to get further info . i have my Pressure adjusted to 14 psi to a max 20 psi and i usually sit at around 17psi , i don't use the Ramp feature or the EPR settings , i sleep an average 6 to 8 hours a night but goto bed around 10pm but i wake always around 4 am and sleep very lightly onwards after till i get out of bed , i still don't feel like this machine has improved my sleep quality at all , i am still tired when i wake i don't feel the promised burst of energy the doctor made out i would get , i still have day time sleepiness , i still wake up with headaches , sore upper body aches , shocking mood swings .

http://ocau.com/pix/bcffn here is a link to one of my sleep studies

It's upside down! But.... if you can download SleepyHead (free) from the first note on main pg (Pugsy's Pointers) and post a graph or two (with leak rates) using Imgur.com and link it to this thread we can get a good idea of how you're doing now.

Julie wrote:It's upside down!

well, yeah, they're in australia... things are upside down there.

palerider wrote:

Julie wrote:It's upside down!

well, yeah, they're in australia... things are upside down there.

PRESS CTRL + ALT AND ARROW UP OR DOWN TO FLIP UR SCREENS sorry its upside down I am so tired and I work for Australian Fed Gov so not very with it at the moment trying to stay awake

Go to bed - we can talk tomorrow (your night time), etc...

FROGFATT wrote:

palerider wrote:

Julie wrote:It's upside down!

well, yeah, they're in australia... things are upside down there.

PRESS CTRL + ALT AND ARROW UP OR DOWN TO FLIP UR SCREENS

I don't think that works in the rightsideup world.

Julie wrote:Go to bed - we can talk tomorrow (your night time), etc...

its only 12.43 pm Wednesday LOL I still at work though barley so scattered today

Frogfatt wrote:My name is Marcus i am from Darwin NT Australia i am 31 years old

so since my late teens I have had sleep apnoea that was undiagnosed but I never did anything about till I hit 30 years old but I knew I had it and so many that witnessed me sleeping also for years told me I must have OSA , I did a sleep study late last year and was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnoea I have started CPAP treatment 2 months ago I purchased a Resmed S9 auto machine not sure on the correct model will add more details later when I get a chance also have a full face mask $2500 not cheap an expense I wish I could have avoided as don't like doctors that much for various personal reasons and i hate overpriced medical equipment .

for the money i have spent on doctors/specialist/sleep study have totalled to just over $5000 all for only a small improvement sleep quality i have nearly reached a point where i wanna throw this machine in bin and just give up as it seems to cause more discomfort than improving the way i feel . the sleep specialist i was seeing is a complete Wanker hardly talks during a consultation and only answers my questions very vaguely and just hands me a script and charges $400 for not even 5 minutes of work .

in my home city we only have 2 choices for sleep apnoea equipment the first company i went to see for a CPAP machine was a place called CLM Sleep Co they are a complete joke in terms of customer service all they gave a shit about was selling a machine as quick as possible and also tried to sell me the software that reads my machines downloads for $300 luckily it can be downloaded for free on the net i was so disgusted in there service the Hire/Trial machine they tried to get me onto was going to cost $500 for the month and when she bought out a machine that was dirty and hoses and mask that looked like they still had someone elses druel inside them YUK . the place i see now called Air Liqud is much better and are more helpful .

where do i start ? how can i make this work for me ? 2 months now and feel no better than i did without CPAP . it seems if i need to get proper treatment i need to research it and do it my self , i am on the verge of throwing all this in the bin so i hope i can get some ideas from this forum in my quest to a good nights sleep free from morning headaches , body aches , daytime sleppyness ,and real bad mood swings

Hi Marcus,,,im in Adelaide and its the same story. Aussie price and service are shit.I might purchase my machine from the US for half the price of what we pay here.

Dazza

dazza wrote: Hi Marcus,,,im in Adelaide and its the same story. Aussie price and service are shit.I might purchase my machine from the US for half the price of what we pay here.

Dazza

I bought mine from the US and saved approx $1500.

OP maybe you need to take a few days off if you are barely able to function

http://imgur.com/v9ShcNm Sorry for the slow reply but I had had a shocking sleep 2 weeks and my PC DIED grrrr so had to go to the sleep centre to get a down load and she couldn't help she is a bit shocked at my readings and recommended I go back to the doctor again