Multiple Recent Problems

[Forrest13]

Dear Board –

Would anybody please help? I have searched for, and ready through many threads, but I feel almost as lost as I was before. I was diagnosed with OSA about 2 years ago, and have been using Resmed S9 Autoset.

Problem:
About 3 months ago I started feeling tired during the day again. Some overnight AHI readings had spiked to between five and 10. But now I feel worse and the Resmed S9 is giving erratic readings. For example, if I have been in bed for about nine hours (with the S9 on), sometimes it will say that I used the machine for six hours. Some of my AHI readings are just bizarre. For example, the other day I lay down for about 30 minutes with the S9 on, and to the best of my knowledge did not fall asleep. The S9 gave an AHI reading of about 14 for the 30 mins of non-sleep.

Things are so bad that I ordered a new Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset the other week (I have not received the unit yet).

I am terrified that my cognition is declining. I am thinking of getting a professional quality oximeter. I am thinking about the Nonin Xpod and the Resmed Oximetry Module.

http://www.nonin.com/Xpod

http://www.resmed.com/us/en/healthcare- ... odule.html

Questions:
1) Is this overkill? I do not have money to throw, but I will lose my job if my cognition dulls further. Going in to a doctor will probably take several months of explaining, back and forth with insurance and another several months to schedule a sleep study. I had rather try to fix the problem myself first.

2) Do I have the correct product links above?

3) Where/how can I find a reliable vendor with “reasonable” prices?
I can only find one place selling the Resmed module for $199. I see a few vendors selling, item #: “DRIVEMEDICAL-dv5m-697” (for about $600) but am not sure whether the preceding part # includes everything I need, or whether I will have to buy additional parts.

4) Am I better off saving the fancy oximeter money and buying one of the Resmed AirCurve machines?

5) How do I check whether my (old) Resmed S9 is not working correctly?

I would be grateful for any help. Thank you so much.

[palerider]

The S9 gave an AHI reading of about 14 for the 30 mins of non-sleep.

perfectly reasonable. it has no way of knowing whether you're awake or not.

I am terrified that my cognition is declining. I am thinking of getting a professional quality oximeter. I am thinking about the Nonin Xpod and the Resmed Oximetry Module.

http://www.nonin.com/Xpod

http://www.resmed.com/us/en/healthcare- ... odule.html

Questions:
1) Is this overkill? I do not have money to throw, but I will lose my job if my cognition dulls further. Going in to a doctor will probably take several months of explaining, back and forth with insurance and another several months to schedule a sleep study. I had rather try to fix the problem myself first.

you do realize you have to buy *both*, so it costs upwards of a thousand bucks to get the privilege of sleeping with another wire to get tangled up in?

get a cms50i, records multiple days, costs under 100$ from aliexpress.com

4) Am I better off saving the fancy oximeter money and buying one of the Resmed AirCurve machines?

wouldn't it be better to see what's going on, instead of just throwing money blindly at the perceived problem??? I mean, if you're sitting on a huge pile of money, and it's uncomfortable, feel free to fill up a dumptruck with some of it, and send it my way.... maybe that'll even out your seating situation and you'll be more comfortable.

5) How do I check whether my (old) Resmed S9 is not working correctly?

get some software, read the data from the sd card. (resscan/sleepyhead)

[JDS74]

It would help if you posted your actual equipment and model numbers using the User Control Panel in the upper left of the screen.

Then, could you supply the answers to some questions?
1) Do you have access to software for monitoring your therapy? SleepyHead or ResScan are the two I know of.

2) What are the settings on your S9? It is possible that you might need additional pressure as something may have changed so that the current levels are no longer as therapeutic as they once were.

3) Would you consider a much lower cost pulse oximeter that would give you much the same information as the Nonin and associated gear? It is my understanding that the ResMed setup will run several hundred dollar (US). A CMS50F oximeter will record all night long and only cost in the neighborhood of $100 (US). I used to use one before I spent a whole bunch on the Respironics equivalent of the Nonin.

4) For the time in which you were using the S9 for 9 hours and the machine only reported 6, is it possible that you checked later in the day? I believe (others please check in with a correction if necessary ) that the internal clock resets the AHI, etc. reading within the machine display when going past noon so that if some of those hours were before noon and some after, that could account for the difference.

5) Did you have a sleep study and do you have or can you get a copy so you can see the details of your apnea issues?

At this point, going for an Aircurve or the expensive Nonin would seem to be overkill. Because awake breathing is so different from sleep breathing, anything the S9 repots for time you are actually awake should not be a basis for changes in either equipment or therapy.

First things first, If your machine records efficacy data, get the appropriate software and get some analysis data to see how your treatment is actually going. The AHI number alone doesn't help much without the breakdown into its components.

[palerider]

It would help if you posted your actual equipment and model numbers using the User Control Panel in the upper left of the screen.

how many s9 autosets are you aware of?

[Julie]

Download (freer) Sleepyhead software to Imgur.com, then leave a link to results in this thread so we can see what's going on overnight... without something like that, it's hard to say a lot more.