Sleep study tomorrow

[snoringmountain]

Hi all. I'm new to this forum and have been newly diagnosed with OSA. My apnea is very mild in comparison to many here (14 per hour with the longest of 69 sec., O2 saturation to 82%). I am having my repeat sleep study and Cpap trial tomorrow night and was just wondering about any specific questions, or requests I should make. I am an intensive care nurse and am familiar with cpap use with my patients but now that it is me, I don't seem to know what to ask? Thanks for responses and thanks for the great site.

[cflame1]

It would be good to find a DME now vs later... find one that you can work with and takes your insurance. Interview them... ask them what kind of service you'll get from them, what kind of machines they usually provide.

When I went for my titration study they wanted to know which DME I'd be working with.

Janknitz's blog has a good post on what to do before meeting your DME... it's a good place to start.

You'll want to make sure that you'll get a fully data capable machine (AHI and Leak data) from your DME... even if you don't intend on viewing the data yourself, there is a chance that your Dr. or RT could get something useful out of it if you have a problem.

[ThirdOutOfFive]

You can also learn a lot by looking at the host site cpap"dot"com.

Good luck with your titration night, and welcome to the group.

[archangle]

Don't let the DME choose the machine for you. Your insurance will probably pay the same for any CPAP machine and the DME will probably try to sell you a junk machine with no data.

Read up on this site about which machines record full data. Good ones record every apnea, and waveforms for every breath all night long. The DME will probably try to sell you one that only records when you turn the machine on and off, and may well lie to you and tell you it's fully data capable. It's like having a cardiac patient on a heart monitor vs. having someone come in and take his pulse once a day.

See if you can convince the doctor to prescribe a pressure range so you will get an auto machine. Lots of doctors are uninformed and dislike auto CPAP machines, but any auto CPAP can be set for a narrow pressure range or even set for manual CPAP.

Many DMEs are worse than used car dealers.

[snoringmountain]

Already planning for one of the better reviewed apap machines for the improved data. I'm calling my insurance tomorrow to see what they cover under my plan, but in what I have read on their site it's not much. I may be paying a lot out of pocket for good sleep. I want the apap because I believe my pressure settings are likely to change alot with a little planned weight loss and will be more adaptable. I will also contact DME to see what they have to say. If I understand correctly I probably won't get prescription until follow-up appointment (after interpretation of study), does this sound right? Thanks again for responses. Jason

[Lizzzabeth]

Based on my limited experience of having one unsuccessful titration study followed by a more successful titration study, I would spend some time trying to understand the difference in the types of masks, chin straps, headgear, etc. so that you can help decide which masks you might want to try. cpap.com is a good resource.

Then I might ask the sleep tech to explain their methods--what are they looking for before they change settings, try breathing relief, wake you to change masks or apply a chin strap, etc. so you aren't caught off guard if they have to come in and wake you or adjust something or if you notice something change in the machine noises.

In a way, the titration study can be your first chance to experiment with what types of masks work best for you. And if you're educated a little bit, you won't just suffer through leaks or rainout or a too tight mask, not realizing they can do something to help you get better sleep. My first mask "whistled", but only I could hear it--it interfered with my sleep. That didn't happen the second night. And I didn't spend time examining how the masks were put together in any effort to learn anything to help me with my future choices. The second night I did.

The sleep tech really probably isn't allowed to comment much on your individual condition or treatment, but they can explain general things like masks and settings and process as long as you are interested and they don't have another patient demanding their service.

The sleep tech for my second sleep study was so patient and helpful--I learned a lot and got to try a few different things. I learned what I didn't like as well as what seemed to work for me. Other people I've spoken to say they just weren't given many options and they didn't know many options existed. You can always figure out the details of what machine and how to work with the dme after your study.

Good luck--I hope you have a restful night's sleep!