Thank you for the responses so far. You have given me several good points to make, I particularly like the analogy to diabetic education and will use that. Part of the reason I was asked to do the presentation is to address the value of data capable machines as we order only data capable, APAP machi...

Several points: 1) I have been asked to give a presentation at the state sleep meeting on compliance programs. Of course, I will talk about our program but I also wanted to get any suggestions from the forum members. The audience will be mostly sleep techs from the labs and RRTs or sleep techs from ...

Ditto to what Hueffenhardt said. It works very well; we use it all the time and it almost never fails unless there is something else going on. Also, as DocWeezy said, a benzodiazepine may help, but we usually don't find it necessary.

I so glad your doc at least addressed your insomnia problem... many don't bother 'cause there's not enough money in it.... or they just give you an Ambien or Lunesta or whatever.... I see it everyday (like today!!) As for your DME ... that's about par for the course .... and a major peeve of mine ab...

larry63 ... that's OK, I shouldn't have been so dismissive. I was just being lazy.

robysue ... that was at baseline, untreated.

Excellent paper ... again, the independent variable is AHI... not AI, not HI, and not any measure of desaturation.... It's unfortunate that they were not able to break down the data based on which OSAS therapy had been tried and whether there was documentation that it had worked.. but that's a later...

This is common. It's usually chest wall discomfort. But chest discomfort can be serious so talk to your doctor.


Sorry folks... this is one of the things I discussed in the ebook.

DHC: I know I said I'd respond here but I put it back on the other thread because.... HoseCrusher said it better ... "sawtooth" pattern and heart rate ... sawtooth is a good marker for events ... and heart rate is a good marker for sympathetic activation ... so ... please see my other post to see wh...

So let me try again. First, the Disclaimer: (1) Nothing I say is meant to imply that oxygen levels and desaturations are not important, only that apnea, per se, even without desaturations can be bad for your health. and (2) Significant desaturations associated with the respiratory events of OSAS are...

Darn ... Sorry ... I just wrote a long (for me) reply, even agreed with NotMuffy somewhat ... but lost it, I apparently wasn't logged in


I'll rewrite, but I have to do some work, so it might be awhile and it might not be as eloquent as the original.

Will do... it might be Monday before I have time to sit down and do it .... it will probably be on the thread DHC suggested. Feel free to PM me if I'm too slow getting to it for you.

As stated, the definition of obstructive sleep apnea syndrome counts hypopneas equal with apneas. For reasons not worth the space here: for all intents and purposes a hypopnea is as bad for your health as an apnea. I even won a Medicare hearing on this back in the early nineties when Medicare didn't...

Slinky said it all!

As for the RRT, it's important he/she has lots of experience with home CPAP.... not just in the hospital setting.

Oh and I often hear the argument that the OSAS has led to chronic CO2 retention, with compensatory bicarbonate shift, and that control of the OSAS with CPAP normalizes that and results in centrals. This makes no sense in a normal, healthy individual.

NotMuffy: A number of people on this thread took issue with my PMs. I expressed to them that I had indeed considered the points they brought up but just came to a different conclusion. Most then tempered their criticism. Some others also posted that they, at least, accepted my approach. Some also co...