going back to sleep doc...need guideance

[Tino2You]

Hi everyone,

Contrary to rumors, I did not fall off the face of the earth, just merely living and not online here much.

The reason I am back is that I have an appointment in two weeks to visit my new sleep doc. This will be the second time since May 2012 I have been to a sleep doc (a ENT in both cases). He asked me to have my DME send him my "charts". I told him, I fired them long ago and have been monitoring my therapy myself. I asked him what he would like to see and he told me "the regular charts" he gets from the DME and could not tell me exactly what he wanted. grrrrrr

I loaded ResMed onto my laptop and pulled in all my data. I figured handing him SleepyHead data/charts would confuse him so I am going to put together a package using ResMed. I pulled the "30 day Compliance", Statistical" and "Summary" reports. Would that be sufficient?

I have no issues with compliance (I am 100% compliant). My AHIs are below 1, 99.9% of the time and only creep when I need a new pillow or when I have a huge leak which isn't often.

Thanks in advance,
-tino

[Julie]

Bring SH charts anyway - why not educate the poor man!

But why are you going anyhow if you use SH and can see for yourself what's happening?

[chunkyfrog]

I went to a sleep doc because my family doc refused to write a Rx for cpap.
I kept going because I was close to Medicare, and the sleep doc turned out to be a tech nerd.
He was impressed by Sleepyhead. Lucky me!
So go ahead, take every chart and graph you have. Good way to rule out the Luddites!

[Tino2You]

I am fast approaching my 5 year anniversary using CPAP and will need to replace my machine. It has almost 13k hours on it. It is still going strong, albeit getting a bit more noisy lately. Starting to wheeze like an old man (or is that me wheezing...)

I'll bring along the SH charts as well...who knows..he may become a believer.

-tino

[raisedfist]

Nothing wrong with showing them data from sleepyhead. I used to have a respiratory therapist that was an older guy. His mind was blown when I showed him the software.

[SewTired]

My sleep doc is a pulmonoligist. She still took the stuff from my SD card, but was happy to see the Sleepyhead data. Get the Overview graphic that has AHI, Usage and Session Times (pressure if it changes a lot as well). To get that, click the 6 month or 1 year text in the Statistics, then go to Overview and print that (use Print Screen if you have problems). Print 3 example days of data (I included all the graphs) within the last month.

The graphic was very useful because it shows I have a lot more interrupted sleep in the Winter months, so we are addressing that to get improvement this year. I went a year, but maybe you just want 6 months. This is also a good test to see if you doc looks at anything other than the compliance stuff. If that is all s/he looks at, rather a useless doc IMHO. That's like practicing medicine without upgrading skills for a decade.

[Julie]

If you got your machine from e.g. Cpap.com using a script, it may still be valid... check into it because some are filed to be good for 99 yrs!

[Tino2You]

Thanks guys I will go armed with lots of dazzle

Julie, my insurance got me the machine years ago. The cost of the co-pay is no where near the cost of a new machine...even on line. I buys most of my supplied from our sponsor, though.

-tino

[D.H.]

If you're using Sleepyhead or any other software, you should bring the card from the CPAP with you. I would call him (her) to make sure that's OK, but I suspect that would be fine.

This is the source data anyhow, and he can do the analysis with any software he wants.

[Julie]

Here we go again DH - he's already said he's bringing not the card necessarily, but the results (graphs, etc). Read people's stuff before you just answer.

[palerider]

If you're using Sleepyhead or any other software, you should bring the card from the CPAP with you. I would call him (her) to make sure that's OK, but I suspect that would be fine.

This is the source data anyhow, and he can do the analysis with any software he wants.

another useless comment by DH.

[Julie]

Sad...

[klv329]

SH with oximetry data and your doctor will stare in disbelief and do what you command.

[Tino2You]

Thank you all for your comments. I will post again with a synopsis of the appointment.
-tino

[Jay Aitchsee]

Hi, Tino
You may have already discovered this, but I think if you try to use the "30 Day Compliance Report" ResScan will default to the first 30 days of usage. If you do select the "30 Day Compliance Report," it can be difficult to clear. I think easiest is to first change the report type to something like "All Data" and then go back to Review/Statistics and select "30 Days" in the viewing range box, then go to Reports to generate what you want for the selected Statistics Viewing Range. "30 Day Compliance Report" does not necessarily cover the same time period as "30 Days"