Humidifier and Software questions

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
gailzee
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Humidifier and Software questions

Post by gailzee » Fri Jan 21, 2005 8:06 pm

Does it pay to have a ''regular'' humidifier in the room going while using the CPAP which also will have it's own. How do you determine how to set the humidification for the CPAP or will the DME (?) tell me once she/he brings the machine to me? Also the software you all mention, is this a MUST? Does the dr. have to order it? I haven't gotten my machine yet, ''it's on order'' from the DME. With a blizzard expected here for 2-3 days won't hear from them obviously over wk end...just some questions.
Also, how would you get the data from the cpap'er to verify if you're improving? Is it a c/d, wha? ...
call me techno phobic and sleep deprived a bad combo.
Thanks.

Irving

Post by Irving » Fri Jan 21, 2005 8:40 pm

Hello,
When you purchase the software the cable comes with it. Each manufacturer has its own software . Look it up at https://www.cpap.com

Cheers,

Irving

gailzee
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Post by gailzee » Fri Jan 21, 2005 9:27 pm

Txs, I will do just that!
Irving wrote:Hello,
When you purchase the software the cable comes with it. Each manufacturer has its own software . Look it up at https://www.cpap.com

Cheers,

Irving

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rested gal
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Post by rested gal » Sat Jan 22, 2005 1:10 am

Gail, only some machines can use software that would give you any meaningful data. So, if you want software, be sure you choose a machine that can use it - if you look on cpap.com, as Irving suggested, look in the drop down list in "Browse products" for the ones called "self adjusting CPAPS" (another way of saying "autopap".) Note the names of the models that also mention software in their package deals.

Example:

Puritan Bennett GoodKnight 420E autopap uses Silverlining software and just a cable.

Respironics REMstar autopap with C-Flex uses Encore Pro software, a "smart card" and a card reader.

ResMed Autoset Spirit uses Autoscan software and a cable.

There are some other types of machines (some bipaps) that also can give data results with software, but those are the three main autopaps that do, at this time.

No, the software is not a "must". It's interesting if you want to actually look at some of the things that can happen during your sleep at home. It's useful if you have doubts about how your treatment is going and don't have a doctor or therapist who is very knowledgeable and very willing to spend a lot of time helping you tweak your treatment. It's useful if you think the pressure found for you at the sleep study might not be effective, especially if you feel ok for several months and then start feeling not as good. Software is useful, but not an absolute "must". Plenty of people get very good results and never have the urge or need to look at their own overnight data. Me? I want to see it!

I would imagine the only way you'd be able to get a DME to order software for you is if the doctor specifies it on a prescription. But anyone can order the software from an online store like cpap.com, without a prescription. If you're considering trying to get software through your DME because you want insurance to pay for it, I don't know if insurance would pay for it even if the doctor ordered it.... I kind of doubt that insurance would want to cover something like that, but I really don't know.

The software comes on a CD. You run the CD once - that "installs the software" on your computer and puts a little icon for the software on your Windows screen (the Windows "desktop"). You don't use the CD anymore after that. From that point on, to actually view overnight data you do this:

If you have either the 420E autopap or Spirit autopap:

The next morning after using your autopap, you unplug the power cord of your autopap from the wall outlet, and carry your autopap to your computer desk. Plug a cable from the machine into the back of your computer. Also plug the autopap's powercord into an electrical outlet, but don't start the autopap. Doubleclick the icon for the software on your computer's screen. Follow the instructions to "download" (that means "get") the data from the autopap into your computer, and you can then view charts and graphs from your previous night(s) sleep. When finished looking at everything you want to see, unplug the cable from the autopap, unplug the power cord, carry the autopap back to your bedroom and plug it back into the wall outlet.

If you have a REMstar autopap (or, better yet, the REMstar autopap with C-Flex):

You don't carry the machine to the computer. Instead, you pull the "smart card" out of the side of the autopap and carry the card to your computer desk. You stick the smart card into a "card reader" that came with the software. You will already have plugged the cord hanging from the little card reader into the back of your computer at the time you were using the CD to install the software. Then you doubleclick the icon for the software, on your computer screen. Follow the instructions to download the data into your computer, and you can view charts and graphs from your previous night(s) sleep. When finished looking at it, take the "smart card" out of the card reader, carry the smart card back to your machine and stick it back into the slot on the side of the machine so it will be ready to record the next night's data.

Sounds complicated but really is simple to do. Any teenager "computer-kid" in your neighborhood can install the software for you and walk you through the steps of viewing your data. Once you've viewed your data a few times, it gets as easy as going through the steps you had to learn to get to this message board and post messages. That probably made you pause a few times and wonder, "what do I click now", but with practice it got more automatic, right?

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littlebaddow
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Post by littlebaddow » Sat Jan 22, 2005 1:34 am

rested gal wrote: Follow the instructions to download the data into your computer, and you can view charts and graphs from your previous night(s) sleep.
Rested Gal, as always, a thorough and very informative reply - many thanks for sharing your knowledge.

I have the remstar smart card in my machine and have been considering getting the reader & software. How easy is it to understand and interpret the data? I'm in the UK, had to 'go private' for my diagnosis and have no insurance, so I cannot afford to keep going back to the doc to find out what's going on!

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rested gal
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Post by rested gal » Sat Jan 22, 2005 7:46 am

Hi littlebaddow,

For the most part, it's pretty easy to understand what the charts and graphs shows. Interpreting the "why" some things show up is something else. Sometimes it's easy to figure out the "why", sometimes it's puzzling. That's when I turn to someone like SWS to figure it out for me.

Here's what one of my nights looked like on the Encore Pro "Daily Detail" graph. For that one, I was using a REMstar auto (my old one, not my new one with C-Flex), pressure range set 10 - 16, using the Breeze and a homemade mouth dam with Ace around my mouth to try to control mouth air leaks. You can see from the "leaks" (bottom third of the chart) that a lot of leaks happened during a good bit of the night and the machine compensated by upping the pressure to deal with them. However the overall AHI for the night was quite low and I felt fine the next morning.
Image

You are welcome to prowl around on my website for other screen shots of both the Encore software and the Silverlining software data. There's even a PDF file in this directory tnlc.com/Lara/laura/osa with all the pages from that one night "Daily Detail" file. You can see everything I saw for that one night in the PDF file, exactly as it appears as if using Encore Pro to look at it. That file is rather big - 1.1M, but you can see it if you have Adobe Acrobat reader for viewing it. Normally, I don't bother looking at the first several pages ...I always just go straight to the graph and chart which are near the end of the nightly report.

My edit: was to make link clickable
Last edited by rested gal on Sat Jan 22, 2005 2:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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littlebaddow
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Post by littlebaddow » Sat Jan 22, 2005 12:18 pm

That's marvellous, many thanks Rested Gal. It's great to have an opportunity to see the data like that & it has certainly removed any doubt I had about buying the kit!

I've no doubt I'll be able to work out what some of it means and will find the answers to the rest in the forum somewhere, but to ask one more question now, what does the AHI signify and what's a normal score? The only thing my doc told me was that I have moderate apnea in the range of 20 to 30 occurances an hour.

ps nice dogs, are they yours?

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guest

Link to PDF File for Encore Pro

Post by guest » Sat Jan 22, 2005 1:11 pm

Rested gal--

I could not make the link in your prior reply work. Is the link correct?

Thanks.

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Clownshow
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Re: Link to PDF File for Encore Pro

Post by Clownshow » Sat Jan 22, 2005 1:20 pm

guest wrote:Rested gal--

I could not make the link in your prior reply work. Is the link correct?

Thanks.
www.tnlc.com <- CLICK

Hey whats with the midi songs on your site? Did you write any of them?
Image

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rested gal
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Post by rested gal » Sat Jan 22, 2005 2:50 pm

littlebaddow: The dogs are mine, yes. I handled my own dogs (and quite a few for other people who bought puppies from me) in AKC shows for many, many years. Retired from showing now and have a boarding/grooming kennel at home. Still have two good Rotties (one under the desk now) and a little orange cat (sleeping curled up with him).

AHI is the "apnea/hypopnea index". It's the total number of apneas and hypopneas (added together) that happened during the night, divided by the number of hours slept. An AHI under 5.0 is generally considered good. My AHI on the machine is usually 1.something or below; hardly ever registering 2.0

guest: I'm sorry I didn't bother to make the link "clickable". I'll go back and edit my post to do that. Thanks for mentioning it.

clownshow: thanks for making a clickable link in your post. No, I don't write midis. Just enjoy music... even ... ... midi music. LOL Actually, I haven't done any house-keeping on my website for years. It probably has a lot of outdated stuff that I need to check links for.

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Clownshow
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Post by Clownshow » Sat Jan 22, 2005 3:34 pm

I was suprised how basic your site was after reading some of your posts here.

You really know your apnea stuff. Do you work in the health industry?
Image

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rested gal
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Post by rested gal » Tue Jan 25, 2005 2:30 am

clownshow, no, I've never worked in the healthcare industry. Never have worked for any company of any kind, for that matter. My first husband and I trained show horses (American Saddlebreds). My second husband and I showed dogs (Rottweilers). I've retired from showing. I have a boarding/grooming kennel that was designed and built as part of the house. Very handy. Nice to work at home on my own hours.

What little I've learned about sleep apnea, I've picked up over the past year entirely by digging for hours at a time into the archives of old posts on message boards - like the snoring and apnea board at talkaboutsleep. Almost everything I ever suggest has been said before - I learned it from other message board posters who shared what worked for them.

Hey, this is the only health problem I've ever had, so I've been very personally interested in how to get this treatment to work as comfortably and well as possible. I don't want the other health problems untreated OSA can lead to. I don't have insurance, so that means I'd better learn as much about this as I can and not have to go to a doctor about it. The message boards are fantastic resources.

gailzee
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thanks again for software lesson

Post by gailzee » Tue Jan 25, 2005 10:26 pm

Hi Rested Gal:
There's got to be heaven 'cos you're going there for all the help you've given us. My latest saga is, my ''machine'' is in...waiting for the DME's RT to call to set up an appt. That should be something. I will call again tomorrow. They seem in no hurry. You'd think they'd want to get it out to the customer. Typical, I'm learning fast, and don't have the CPAP yet.

Did I tell you my GP said that in med school they laffed at sleep problems, but he's catching ''on, it's a big problem", but still have the big ?? in the voice. Well I'm going to give it my best shot. I unfortunately ave other problems, probably more than likely stemming from sleep apnea/hypopnea problems, for how many decades. I can't even go there....

Thank you again. If they don't bring the software (as I requested), I'll just get it myself. Old story, if you don't advocate for yourself, no one else will.

Forget the pulmonary doc's, 5 mins, you're out the door.
I'll update you on the DME saga, it should be something else.
rested gal wrote:clownshow, no, I've never worked in the healthcare industry. Never have worked for any company of any kind, for that matter. My first husband and I trained show horses (American Saddlebreds). My second husband and I showed dogs (Rottweilers). I've retired from showing. I have a boarding/grooming kennel that was designed and built as part of the house. Very handy. Nice to work at home on my own hours.

What little I've learned about sleep apnea, I've picked up over the past year entirely by digging for hours at a time into the archives of old posts on message boards - like the snoring and apnea board at talkaboutsleep. Almost everything I ever suggest has been said before - I learned it from other message board posters who shared what worked for them.

Hey, this is the only health problem I've ever had, so I've been very personally interested in how to get this treatment to work as comfortably and well as possible. I don't want the other health problems untreated OSA can lead to. I don't have insurance, so that means I'd better learn as much about this as I can and not have to go to a doctor about it. The message boards are fantastic resources.

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littlebaddow
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Post by littlebaddow » Wed Feb 16, 2005 1:36 pm

rested gal wrote: Here's what one of my nights looked like on the Encore Pro "Daily Detail" graph.
Rested Gal, I've just received the Encore Pro software and card reader, ordered from cpap.com This is what I ordered:

https://www.cpap.com/productpage/1440

My machine is the Remstar Auto c-flex model.
Having downloaded the data from the smartcard, the only report with any data that I can see is called 'Multiple Compliance Download' which shows daily patterns of use. There are 2 others called 'FOSQ Trend' and 'Patient Demographics' which have no data.

There's no sign of the 'Daily Detail' report, so I'm getting none of the info about pressure range etc shown on your example.

Having loooked at the box the software came in, it says in very small print on the back 'Note: automatic scoring or diagnosis of a patient's therapy data will not be performed with this software' so I'm now wondering if there's another lot of software I need, ie have I ordered the wrong stuff, or has the manufacturer changed what they offer?

Or, is it just a case of user stupidity

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Post by snoozin' » Wed Feb 16, 2005 2:15 pm

I just got this a couple of weeks ago, so let's see if I can walk you through it.
Under Interactions, click on Download Data - Smart Card Reader
This will let you download the info from the Smart Card

Once you have the data downloaded, you should have a screen which shows the nights compliant, and underneath an Interaction List, with the date and Sleep Therapy Compliance Download.
Double click on the compiance download and a pop up screen will ask the type of reports and dates. I use all data and full reports. This should give you all the reports.
Debbie