Need newbie help, please. "Where a CPAP newbie should start" didn't help me

Hello again.

Sorry to be a pain in the butt. I'm just excited that I found this forum! This is my first week on CPAP therapy and this board is great, but now I have even MORE questions!!

Yes, yes, I DID check out the "I'm a CPAP NEWBIE and this is where I should start" thread at the top. BUT the page that tells you where to start, that is won't be a waste of anyone's time, is FILE NOT FOUND.

And the page listing the slang and acronyms is not accessible either. BUMMER!

So someone please fill me in:

What IS sleephead? I know it's software--but HOW do I get it and use it? Does it come with my respironics dreamstation machine? IS that what the SD card in it is for?

And a lot of the replies I'm reading here are like Greek to me--- where can I learn what you guys are talking about? These terms..... this lingo? The acronyms?

AND also, I have been to the Philips website, and watched all of their videos about my dreamstation machine, read ALL of their PDF's and whatnot....but it seems like YOU guys sure know a lot more about this machine, so WHERE did you learn all of that stuff? I want to know all I can about my machine and what it can do.

I use the DreamMapper app that Philips said to download on my iphone. Basically all it tells me so far is how many hours I slept. This sleepyhead software seems to know so much more! And a screenshot I saw looked a lot like the printout my sleep-study-technician gave me. I went over it with a fine toothed comb one night, and looked up what every acronym meant and made notes and figured it all out on my own. I'd LOVE to have access to that kind of info on a daily/weekly/monthly basis using this sleepyhead software. So, please tell me how and if my dreamstation can or does use it.

Any other advice for this newbie is greatly appreciated! And please bear with me--I AM a newbie, yes, but I AM ALSO LEGALLY BLIND since I was born, so I am able to read up close, and I need a lot of Windex to clean the nose smudges off of my screen, LOL. Truly, I mean, it takes me longer to read or see things here on this forum, but I AM trying to read a lot tonight and learn all I can.

Thank you for being patient with me and helping me out!!

~Molly

To get and use Sleepyhead -

https://sleep.tnet.com/sleepyhead
https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead/shorganize
https://sleep.tnet.com/reference/tips/imgur

If you need more help, please come back to same thread and more of us will show up .

Welcome to the forum.

Unfortunately the "Where a CPAP newbie should start" thread in the announcements section is way old in a lot of its link and hasn't been updated. The beginning is over 10 years old. It's not a current thread. Might have been better to start on the last page and work backwards.

I think you might do better with the CPAP Wiki
wiki/index.php/Main_Page

Go here to see more information about actually installing and using SleepyHead
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph ... d#pid73182

Software information can be found here..It has links to where you can go to download SleepyHead
https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment

And some more informational type of stuff can be found here.
http://freecpapadvice.com/

That should keep you busy for a while.
The CPAP Wiki at the top of the main forum page alone has tons of information. When I first started therapy I spent days and days reading.

Exactly which model DreamStation do you have?
DreamStation CPAP
DreamStation Pro CPAP
DreamStation Auto CPAP

Here are the id numbers for the dreamstations. if you have water in the humidifier, take it out before looking at the bottom of the machine for the number on the label.

Look for DSX and 200, 400 or 500

DreamStation cpap #DSX200S11
DreamStation Pro CPAP Machine #DSX400S11
DreamStation Auto CPAP Machine #DSX500S11

Thanks everyone.

The bottom of my machine says "DSX200H11". So I guess I have the regular machine. Not the pro or the other one. I guess I didn't get a fancy machine, but I'm happy with the one I have, so far.

Thanks for the help, I'll start reading those links right away!