The Aussie thread

[judetheobscure]

Hi,

I'm a 55 yo Brisbanite (go the Broncos).

After almost accidentally getting on a hospital waiting list for a sleep study (thank you to the very thorough doctor who took my initial history related to something quite separate), I got a call out of the blue from the sleep unit 3 years later, and had the study. Turned out I had severe OSA, probably had for years. Oxygen levels around 70% etc.

I've been using the Resmed S9 Auto for approx 6 weeks, and am on my 3rd mask so far. God, it's all so frustrating trying to stay asleep with a piece of plastic up your nose, and a gale blowing down your throat. I'm almost glad I don't have a partner, so I'm free to swear and whinge at will. I do sympathise with those who have continual trouble with the whole concept. I could be in danger of becoming 'non-compliant', but as others have said, it's really the only way to go to prevent worse things happening.

If I ever do crack the system and get a good night's sleep, I'm sure my surly pessimism will be tranformed into boundless optimism.

It's lovely to be able to contribute to an Aussie thread. Good luck to all who sail on the SA ship! See you on the other side.

[countman88]

good on you jude, stick to it.
i'm sure you will get used to it. What pressure are you on?
I have been using cpap for about 10yrs and actually miss my machine if I go a night without it. I am on a pressure of 11 and don't notice it at all now.
I use a mouthguard (mandibular splint) if I have to go interstate or whatever for just one night, but it is not as effective as the cpap. If I have a nanna nap in the afternoon, without my cpap, I wake up with a blocked up nose, so look forward to using the cpap that night to clear my head.
Sorry, can't really agree with Go the Broncos, I'm a Lions fan, but never mind.

Cheers
KenD
bris

[Aussiegrouch]

G'Day to all you Aussies out there.

I am 72, living in a retirement village in Kincumber on the beutiful Central Coast of NSW.

I was diagnosed in September 2006 and underwent a sleep study at Prince of Wales sleep clinic in Sydney.
Originally had a ResMed S8 AutoSpirit, but have now a Respironics M series A flex purchased from the USA via our host cpap.com.
After the usual settling down period of fighting the mask and getting lousy numbers, I can say now that my AHI over last 6 months is 0.3 with a pressure of 14-18.

I would certainly like to try the ResMed S9 but my wife would excommunicate me (or worse) if I got another machine.

I have an amazing relationship with my Respiratory Doctor at Gosford Hospital and all I do every 3 months is turn up with all my downloaded data, which he thinks is wonderful. I give him the Encore Analyser reports for the past 6 months, Last nights Encore Pro report, Spirometry results from MIR spirometry and my last night's download from my SpO2 300W1 and he keeps saying I am doing half of his job for him.
I only wish that he would give me half of his income to suit!!

Great to see all of you Aussies coming out of the woodwork!!

Graham

[scotto]

Hi Aussiegrouch, Just a quick one, how did you find ordering from cpap.com? Was shipping reasonable? Did it work out cheaper than buying here? Have you had any warranty issues etc.??

I'm thinking about starting a bit of a mask collection (my wife isn't happy with the amount of noise the easylife mask makes, but I find it really comfortable) and masks seem to be a lot cheaper in the US than they are here, but shipping might blow that out.

Love to hear your thoughts, in a PM if you think they could be damaging to the company's reputation.

Cheers.

[MamaJo]

Broncos?

Lions?



Go SWANS!!!

[Aussiegrouch]

Hi Aussiegrouch, Just a quick one, how did you find ordering from cpap.com? Was shipping reasonable? Did it work out cheaper than buying here? Have you had any warranty issues etc.??

I'm thinking about starting a bit of a mask collection (my wife isn't happy with the amount of noise the easylife mask makes, but I find it really comfortable) and masks seem to be a lot cheaper in the US than they are here, but shipping might blow that out.

I looked up my invoice from Dec 2007 and for the M series Auto A-Flex package incl humidifier etc was USD742.00 plus USD150.00 for shipping.
Considerably cheaper than Australian prices at the time (about half).
No problems with customs and very fast delivery, less than 10 days.
No warranty problems.

Graham

[bigk]

I can recommend CPAP.COM too. I got my S9 there (before the price rise).

[bigk]

oh yeah.... GO SWANS

[countman88]

G'day Aussiegrouch
There are quite a few online cpap sales sites which have cheaper shipping costs than cpap.com. Around $60.
But BigK suggested http://WWW.shipto.com. You just list your address as their address. They then arrange the customs paperwork etc and onforward to your address. $8.50 plus the shipping cost, about $30 for a cpap machine I think.
Looks like a good option. Have a look at their site. They will ship virtually anytghing

KenD
bris

[judetheobscure]

HI Ken,

I have my resmed s9 set at auto between 6-12. I may have to increase it as my AHI usually hovers around 4-5. (last night was 15 - a bit scary)

BTW can anyone recommend a good respiratory doctor in the Brisbane area?

It's slowly getting easier to sleep more than 2 hours at a time with the mask. No magic bullet at this stage though. I think I'm getting more energy, but really who would know as I was so sleep deprived in the first few weeks, anything is an improvement. I'll see how I'm travelling in a few months.

The thought of our cane toads hopping all over the cockroaches is keeping my spirits up in the meantime.

Cheers, all.

[countman88]

G'day Jude
Glad to hear you are hanging in. If you are going two hours it won't be too long before you can use it all night, and then you should notice a real difference.
I still use cpap only so unable to comment on your numbers.
I think the Maroons should do ok on Wednesday night.

KenD
Bris

[Brisaussie]

BTW can anyone recommend a good respiratory doctor in the Brisbane area?

I can think of 2 off the top of my head but there are plenty in Brisbane.

Prof Roger Allen at the Wesley.
Sean Tollhurst @ snoreaustralia.

[Max250]

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[billbolton]

A new S9+H5i in Australia costs about $2100 US dollars from any DME in my nearest city.

I paid just under AUD$1800 for mine from a Sydney retailer a few months back.

Now these machines seem to come out in new versions quite regularly

There's always something new, however the basic treatment is still the same. Product turn (new models) seem to come around about every 2 to 3 years for most manufacturers of CPAP kit.

You should expect any reputable brand of CPAP system to last at least 5 years, and there is no particular need to update during that time unless you have a very specific treatment efficacy driven reason to do so.

So by hiring I would also be paying for really good back-up in the event of malfunction, I would have access to new models when they came out and I wouldnt have to find over $2000 dollars now.

Well, USD$85 a month is USD$1020 per annum (AUD$1143.68 at today's exchange rate).

In less than 19 months of rental you will have paid more than the new purchase price of the kit.

Cheers,

Bill

[Brisaussie]

I bought a CPAP in Australia about 3 months ago.

Like you I wondered about the rental as an option. I was particularly interested to see if I could rent and then offset with the yearly $500 from my private health fund. I thought if I was prepared to do a long term rental they might drop the monthl;y rental a bit.

However, in the end I decided to buy for a couple of reasons:

1. The 3 or 4 places I tried, none of them really wanted to rent longer than 3 months. They were only really interested in using it as a feeder for sales.
2. They won't rent a mask, they will let you try one for a little while (few weeks) and then they expect you to buy.
3. Rental was not cheap, I worked out that effectively you paid for a machine in about 24 months. Although in your case, it sounds even shorter. So effectively you could buy a new machine every 2 years and still be ahead. From what I can see thistorically the 2 big players don't seem to bring out a new machine more rapidly than that. In reality I expect to upgrade in 3 years and keep the old one as a back-up.
4. Most I spoke to were prepared to be price competitive with other Australian based sellers so you can negotiate them down a bit. Even from a quick look I suspect you could get the machine and humidifier you are looking at for less than $1900 Australian.
5. I purchased locally from someone fairly substantial (who also happed to have their office right near my doctor). This has made it easy for generating reports and getting them to my doctor, discussing problems, mask fitting etc. They effectively offer the "back-up" in the purchase price.
6. From what I can read and from my personal experience, cleaning is done yourself and "annual calibration" sounds like a sales line. There is not really any ongoing maintenance requiring input from the DME.
7. The warranty I got was 2 years so effectively this will last as long as if I had rented it for the same price. Resmed will do an extended warranty of 3 years for a bit extra through its SleepVantage programme so that would be even better for you. The people I purchased from said they would supply a temporary machine if I had to return it for warranty repair.
8. My health fund won't pay rental for a CPAP but will pay $500 towards a purchase.

If you wanted to you could probably order from the US for about $1400 Australian (a week ago it would have been about $1300 but the aussie dollar has take a bit of a dive recently). There are then people like "Addy" who will ship it and also help out with warranty issues and I think will probably charge you about $150. However, you will be without a machine for a while if it needs to be repaired and shipped back to the US. Given I could negotiate the price down a fair way, I decided that the price difference was not worth the hassle, but if you are really strapped for cash and your insurance won't cover any of it, the $450 you could save might make it an option.

If you are new to CPAP I highly recommend you rent for a few months to see if you can tolerate CPAP and the particular machine. Most will let you swap machines during the rental period. Also, many local retailers will discount the 3 months rent off the purchase price.