Data or No Data

[jen4700]

I have my cpap orientation tomorrow to review equipment and masks. I've been reading a l ot of posts and the consensus seems to be get a machine with data (and the software).

I did watch one video (freecpapadvice.com) the sleep specialist said that some people obsess about the data. He said it might be better to just go by how you feel.

I'm a computer nerd. I know I will track all my data and (yes) obsess about it.

With that said, should I get a data-capable machine? Convince me!

PS - not even sure yet if a data-capable machine is an option yet or not.

[cflame1]

go with the data... better to have it and not look at it then not to have it and need it if you have a problem.

If you have a leak and nobody's there to tell you that you're leaking how are you going to know if you don't have any data?

[Janknitz]

Oh come on! Try and convince me you are going to be happy not knowing what's going on, especially if things don't go smoothly and perfectly.

So what if you obsess over your data? The only person that will bother is the specialist who told you that . And if you run into trouble, what are you going to do? We don't call machines without EFFICACY data "bricks" for nothing.

[cowlypso]

Will you obsess over your data? Probably. At least at first.

For the first month or so, I would download my data every single morning and spend 10-20 minutes looking at it all. But that didn't last. Yesterday was the first time I'd downloaded data in about 2 months.

[jen4700]

Does the software work on Mac? All my computers are mac.

[moondoggy]

Here's some info that may give you some insight.....

All machines have some means of tracking your data. This is necessary to that your doctor can review how well your machine is meeting your medical needs and make adjustments as needed. For some people they don't care if they can analyze their own data or not as all they want is for the equipment to work right. Others, like myself, want to know what the doctor knows about how well the machine is working. For example, my machine shows me my AHI value by pressing a button on the machine but if I download the data from the machine into some software I've loaded on my PC I can see what kinds of apnea's make up the index and what time during the night the apneas are occuring. In addition to the apneas the software will show the leak rate of my mask and what times at night the leaks are taking place. In addition the software will also show you any correlation between your apnea and other bits of data. Can you become excessive over the software and data? Of course. That being said if you are a professional computer nerd you know how to analyze data anyway and not become excessive. In my case I was able to get a ResMed S9 AutoSet machine for which you can use the ResMed software and Sleepyhead software. The S9 Autoset is a really nice machine and I would certainly recommend it to you if you have a choice. Not sure what other mchines have software available for the machine but I know the S9 Autoset does. Hope this helps.

[jen4700]

Thank you. Even tho I've educated myself, I'm still very nervous. The "convince me" was a stab at humor. My bad.

[avi123]

I would first determine if your sleep specialist agrees to go over your reports. My does not. He holds MDs in internal, pulmonology, and sleep medicines. He believes in results from sleep clinics only. There is no way that I could show him my ResScan Graphs.

[ozij]

Since when are sleep doctors qualified diagnosticians of OCD?

Do you really think having a machine with detailed data will have you obsessing about it instead of sleeping?

Are obssesive people instructed not to check their blood glucose levels if they have diabetes? Or if they have high BP, are they instructed to avoid monitoring their BP?

Yes, some people have terrible sleep because they obsses about things. My guess is they can use lack of data as a reason for obssessing just as they would obssess about existing data.

It's up to you. If you doctor will not look at your data, you can:

• Look for one that does
• Trust your doctor and ignore your data while optimizinng the your therapy with the doctor's help
• Trust your data to help you optimize your therapy without the doctor's help

I have found a daily look at the data much more helpful in optimizing my therapy than occasional meetings with medical personel.

[robysue]

Adding my support to those who say Get the data machine.

Sure, if you're lucky and you take to CPAP like a duck to water, you might not need the data and you might never look at it. (And your doc will certainly never look at it.)

But---if you run into difficulties, what will you do? Going by How do you feel? then becomes you telling the doc I feel lousy. Any ideas on why I still feel lousy?. And at the start, all the doc is likely to say is: Are you using the machine all night long every night? You won't feel better until you are sleeping with it every single night. So just keep trying harder at making it work. And so you then wind up spending several weeks or months continually calling the docs office and continually reporting I feel lousy. Any ideas on why I still feel lousy? And all the doc can do is make wild stabs in the dark. And hence your conversations with the doc (or the PA or Nurse) will go something like this----possibly spread out over the course of several weeks or months of you continuing to feel lousy:

Doc: Are leaks a problem? (No data, so we don't know; the doc will probably assume this is the problem, however and insist on you either trying a chin strap or a full face mask, which may make the situation worse if leaks are NOT your problem.)

Doc: Maybe the pressure is too low and your apnea is not yet controlled. So let's increase the pressure. (No data, so who knows what your treated AHI is. Some docs will routinely increase the pressure by 1-3cm in hopes that this fixes things. But it might not---particularly if your treated AHI is actually well under control and the problem is something else altogether. Or if, unknown to the doc, you're pressure sensitive and the number of central apneas you are experiencing has skyrocketed since starting CPAP. More on this in a minute.)

Doc: Since we've tried the obvious two things, we could either do another sleep study to find out what's going on or we could switch you to an APAP for a week or two of autotitration just to double check the pressure setting and to see if your AHI is under 5. (At worst, this will require you to spend another expensive night in the sleep lab. At best, this will require you to go back to the DME to be set up with a loaner machine for two weeks that does record data, then you'll need another trip back to either the DME or the doc's office to have the data read, and a trip back to the doc to find out what s/he wants to do about the results. You save yourself a lot of time and trouble by having an APAP in the first place even if it is set in straight CPAP mode.)

And, by the way, a very small minority of new CPAPers run into a problem called Complex Sleep Apnea. That's when starting on CPAP therapy fixes the OSA just fine, but the pressure induces your brain to intermittently forget to send signals to breathe and so your CAI starts to increase---sometimes to the point where it becomes significant enough to prevent you from seeing any benefits to your therapy. CompSA can be dealt with---once it's diagnosed. But without a data machine, if you are unlucky enough to be in this small minority of PAPers, it can take months of ineffective therapy and complaining to the doc before either a new sleep study is done or an auto titration is ordered.

[cflame1]

Does the software work on Mac? All my computers are mac.

Check into Sleepyhead, it does

[jmcanzo]

I would first determine if your sleep specialist agrees to go over your reports. My does not. He holds MDs in internal, pulmonology, and sleep medicines. He believes in results from sleep clinics only. There is no way that I could show him my ResScan Graphs.

I am lucky, last year the Dr wrote me a Rx to buy the software (This way I could use my flex spend Med account). This yr brought my reports from the software (Also knowing they do not have the software for the Intellipap). Dr said everything here looks great! Keep doing what you are doing. Showed her where I had adjusted my pressure and why. She had no problem with me using Auto and making the adjustments.