New Guy

[allenrcp]

Hey everyone! My name is Aaron and this is my first post here. I have been doing a lot of browsing on the cpaptalk forums since since having my first psg earlier this week and it seems like a wonderful community. I am not on therapy yet but I had a split night showing an AHI of 33 with desats to 82% (thats all the information I have so far). I am led to believe that I may frequently experience a much higher AHI as I didn't have any REM sleep before the introduction of therapy. In any event, AHI down to 2.3 on auto CPAP. I'm waiting to see the doc and will go from there. I was unable to fully appreciate how much better I felt before I left the sleep center. It became extremely clear throughout the day. Big improvement off of essentially a half night of sleep. I can't wait to see what a full night is like. Further research points to untreated OSA as a probable underlying reason for my hypertension and mildly increased liver enzymes. That would be amazing if untreated OSA is causing all of this. I'm still waiting to see what insurance will cover in terms of getting on therapy. I'm inclined to go with a dreamstation apap with a full face mask since this is what I tested on and found it reasonably tolerable. Thanks for listening.

[Pugsy]

Welcome to the forum.

It's very possible that your OSA is worse in REM (when you finally have some REM) as that is fairly common.
My OSA is 5 times worse in REM than in the other sleep stages.

Since this is a distinct possibility I would definitely make a strong push for the auto CPAP machine that will auto adjust the pressures.
It is also fairly common to need substantially higher pressures during REM and it's a lot more comfortable using lower pressure most of the night and let the machine deal with the REM with higher pressures only when needed.
Otherwise if you get a regular fixed cpap mode only machine you might have to use those substantially higher pressures all night instead of part of the night.

I can get by with 10 or 11 cm pressure during non REM sleep but in REM I might need 18 or more.
I sure wouldn't want to use 18 cm all night long. Typically REM is only about 20% of our sleep time...much nicer to use the auto adjusting (apap) mode.

Depending on your pressure needs...if they are in the teens you might also look at the ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet...I think it's exhale relief is probably superior to the Respironics when pressure is in the teens.
Just my opinion...and I own both machines.
I can pretty much guarantee that you wouldn't be sorry if you got the AirSense 10 AutoSet even though you haven't had a chance to use one of those models.

Stick with either ResMed or Respironics brand though. Either one will do a really good job for you and the data collected (so you can monitor your own therapy if you wish) is a little more comprehensive and software is easy to get (free) and use.

Read this if you haven't already.
https://maskarrayed.wordpress.com/what- ... me-part-i/

all APAP machines are full efficacy data....some of the fixed cpap machines don't offer full efficacy data so if you get an APAP you will know it is full data if you stick with ResMed or Respironics.

[Sir NoddinOff]

Hi allenrcp... welcome to CPAPtalk. Pugsy, as usual, pretty much nailed it. What a refreshingly great attitude you have. Realistic and looking for solutions while keeping an open mind ... all this instead of cursing fate (and the medical community) for your circumstances. I'm betting you are one of the success stories!

Echoing what Pugsy said above, here's a reasonably up-to-date database that tells you if a prospective machine has data capability, which you will certainly need. Oddly enough, even a few of the newest non-auto models are NOT data capable, sad to say. Some other features are covered also. This links to one database but there are two views – use whichever one is expedient for you:

https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment/cpapmachines

https://sleep.tnet.com/cmd