Need the Manual

[Philfan]

I've been on the REMstar Auto C-Flex CPAP for approximately two months. I've tried to get the machine provider or the sleep doc to let me have a copy of the units instruction, user, adjustment, etc manual. They have refused to allow me to have it. Will one of you who have the manual for the REMstar Auto C-Flex CPAP make a copy of it and send, e-mail it to me? I will reimburse you for any expenses incurred.
Thanks for your help.
Tom Morrow

[Linda3032]

I don't have one Phil, but I'm sure you'll get some responses here. Also, you can check Ebay - manuals are usually sold for CPAP machines there.

[Mile High Sleeper]

Philfan, there is a user manual online that you can print. Try respironics.com and look under products. It's the same as the print manual that comes with the machine, which is designed for the user.

What I would like is the tech's instructions for setting the pressure, etc. If anyone has that, please post info! I did catch someone's instructions on this forum, but more would be good, too.

[wading thru the muck!]

I PM'd you both.

[Mile High Sleeper]

wading thru the muck,
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

On Friday, I had to move mountains to get my lower pressure reset by the DME. About 4 or 5 calls to doctor's office, doc had to send in script twice, the DME customer service lost it, as usual, in spite of telling me the local office had the script. Local office, as usual, refused to do anything and even they couldn't contact customer service. Took me from 10:30 am to 5:30 pm on the phone, including an hour sitting at the DME, 30 mile round trip from home. Reset when finally done took less than 30 seconds.

Now I can work on my upper pressure. Being titrated for the first time next week. Waiting for card reader to arrive, order delayed because of Chinese New Year.

[Mile High Sleeper]

For a manual written for the user:

http://www.respironicsremstar.com
Go to Literature, Instructions, REMstar Auto.

For product information, on Auto, C-flex, and heated humidifier:

same url,
Literature, Brochures, and look up the product.

[Goofproof]

When you get the reader working, you can change the pressure from the smartcard.

[Mile High Sleeper]

In the omigod department - in checking my settings now that I know how, thanks to y'all, I found that the DME incorrectly set my machine to the 4:00 hour split study setting. What has this been causing my machine to do during the last 2 months plus that I've used it? Mode is AFLE, that is auto cpap w/ C-flex enabled, yes?

I changed the ramp to 0.

[Darth Vader Look]

Mile High Sleeper wrote -In the omigod department - in checking my settings now that I know how, thanks to y'all, I found that the DME incorrectly set my machine to the 4:00 hour split study setting. What has this been causing my machine to do during the last 2 months plus that I've used it? Mode is AFLE, that is auto cpap w/ C-flex enabled, yes?

I changed the ramp to 0.

Unless you actually pressed the ramp button on the unit nothing would have happened. It would have remained in APAP mode. And yes is the answer to your last question.

[rested gal]

Unless you actually pressed the ramp button on the unit nothing would have happened. It would have remained in APAP mode.

Actually, the moment the machine was started, it went right into the split night mode that the DME incorrectly set it for. It's not necessary to hit the ramp button to make the split night therapy start. When you turn the machine on, the split night begins.

I know, because just last night I did a "timed 3 hour" split night for my sister, using my REMstar Auto with C-Flex. Read the Smart Card this morning. By the way, after trying several masks from my stash, she chose the Activa and slept with no complaints for almost 8 hours. I was quite proud of her.

First three hours of data showed the machine using a straight 5 cm H20 which was as low as she could breathe comfortably at. After the three hours was up, the machine began using pressures up to 12. The ramp button was never touched.

Mile High Sleeper, that's appalling that the DME didn't know any better than to set your autopap that way. This is not the first time I've read of a DME making the split-night setup mistake on that machine...inexcusable.

You asked what your machine has been doing for the past two months, using it that way? Well, it's been using your low pressure for the first four hours every night. It's been behaving as if it were a fixed single pressure cpap at that low pressure until the four hours was up, then it was finally free to work as an autopap for the remainder of the night.

If the low setting in your range happens to be up fairly close to your prescribed pressure, no harm was really done. Perhaps undertreated a little the first four hours each night, but close enough. But if the low is set quite low, you weren't getting much treatment at all for four hours every night. The more I think about that, the more inexcusable it is.

As Darth said, yes, AFLE means autopap mode with C-Flex enabled.

[NightHawkeye]

. . . that's appalling that the DME didn't know any better than to set your autopap that way. This is not the first time I've read of a DME making the split-night setup mistake on that machine...inexcusable.

No need to be so hard on the DME really - a good reason one needs to take full responsibility and control for one's own therapy though.

I'm reminded of the fact that when I went for eye surgery, they not only asked me which eye was being operated on, they also used a large black marker to mark that eye - just to make sure no one operated on the other eye.

Mistakes will always happen. Unfortunately, the machine's design makes it easy. If Mile High Sleeper had been monitoring her own therapy and been adjusting her own machine, instead of blindly trusting those in the medical establishment, she'd have caught this sooner, probably after the first night, maybe before.

Regards,
Bill

[Darth Vader Look]

Actually, the moment the machine was started, it went right into the split night mode that the DME incorrectly set it for. It's not necessary to hit the ramp button to make the split night therapy start. When you turn the machine on, the split night begins.

You are exactly right rested gal. I checked the clinicians manual and although it says you can set the split night mode for 2, 3 or 4 hours in auto mode only and nothing about having to press the ramp button in order for this to work in that mode. Well it makes sense now that it should work that way. I know my unit came with the setting set at 4 hours and I thought I had left it there but when I rechecked it, I had reset it to 0. Sorry for the incorrect info .

[GrumpyInKC]

No need to be so hard on the DME really - a good reason one needs to take full responsibility and control for one's own therapy though.

I tend to agree with that thought except for the fact that they try to keep us from having the tools and/or knowledge to take responsibility, and the fact that they justify huge mark-ups on equipment because of the "expert" advice and support they give.

Sorry if I sound grumpy (I can't help it hence my userid) but I just saw the bills for my cpap, humidifier, and mask from my DME and they've already charged as much as buying it from cpap.com and it's only my first month of rental. I guess the 20 minute introduction to the cpap was worth the 100%+ mark-up.

[Jim Eads]

No need to be so hard on the DME really
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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): DME[/quote]

Are you kidding? A "health care professional" misadjusts a machine designed to treat a potentially life threatening condition and we shouldn't be too hard on them?

If this happen to me I would have sent a letter to the president of the company pointing out this employees inexcusable error and letting him/her know that they're lucky they are not hearing from my lawyer.

You are right in that we should all be responsible for ourselves and our actions. Just like that DME supplier employee should be responsible for his/her mistakes.

Jim

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): DME

[Mile High Sleeper]

[quote="NightHawkeye"]If Mile High Sleeper had been monitoring her own therapy and been adjusting her own machine, instead of blindly trusting those in the medical establishment, she'd have caught this sooner, probably after the first night, maybe before.

Gimme a break, NightHawkeye! I HAVE been monitoring my own therapy daily, as best I could. I have NOT been blindly trusting those in the medical establishment. Have you heard of a learning curve when you first start a strange therapy like APAP? It takes time to discover and solve all the problems, especially when answers are not readily available (until you discover this forum). I've been on APAP for a little over two months. Advice: don't start APAP when you have delays due to Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's, and Chinese New Year. All these holidays delayed improvements in my therapy (order not filled or shipped because...)

Thanks to the info available on the forum and cpap.com (and unavailable from the doc, DME, or sleep lab), I've successfully learned about and dealt with rainout, bed pillows, masks, aerophagia, and then pressure settings, and most recently, how to set the machine. I didn't order the card reader and software immediately because I didn't own the machine for the first two months, and thought software cost $200 plus reader. It took a while to discover on the forum that a reader can be low cost and software download free.

I have been LONGING for the empowerment to adjust my own machine and get readouts. I KNEW it was horrible dealing with the DME, although I didn't know until this discovery that their settings were wrong. But when a bad DME is your only choice, you're stuck with it, at least temporily, until your knowledge gap fills. Thanks to my initiative and recent help from a forum member, I finally have the parts of the clincian's manual to set my own machine, and discovered this DME error.

Given the current state of APAP knowledge (or lack) and attitude about patient (I prefer the term user) empowerment in the medical establishment, I think it's very unlikely that a new APAP user would have the machine, clinician's manual, software, and reader available to her on the first night of therapy. Maybe we can change that! That's why this forum and others, and the patient education handouts I've written, can be so helpful to others, to shorten their learning curve.