Nooowbie here <--------------

[Nebakanezzar]

Hey All,

So, I have been told for many years, by friends and lovers, that I snore really bad. I never felt I had any symptoms of sleep apnea other than I don't really feel really rested when I sleep.

I recently saw a posting for sleep apnea study at Stanford, so I decided what the hell and signed up. So after a couple sleepovers and a bunch of other testing, they tell me i have Apnea, and that my Apnea is so sever, I don't qualify for their study. They were very kewl though, I met with their specialist to go over my results, and they gave me a prescription for a CPAP machine...even made $50 off the deal

This was a about 3 months ago, and at the time I didn't have insurance or an extra $5-700 to spend on a CPAP. I now have insurance, and I want to get a CPAP. I have been doing some reading, but I am soooo confused and have a few questions....

- how does one go about selecting what model they want?
- what features are "must haves"
- where is the best place to buy from?
- what else do I need to know?

thanx in advance for any info.

[rested gal]

Hi Nebakanezzar,

cpap.com is an online store that many of us buy our machines, masks, and supplies from.

Here's a link with tons of helpful info:

Mile High Sleeper's great information resource for cpap users.

"must have" features....well, that depends on so many things:

*what pressure you need

*how easy or difficult it is for you to breathe out against that pressure

*whether or not you want to monitor your own treatment via the LCD window on some machines or via software

*if you decide to use software, do you want to use a card and card reader or a download cable (Note: beginning Oct. 1, 2006, ResMed will not allow their software to be sold through internet stores. The other cpap manufacturers do not have that kind of restriction.)

*whether or not you have underlying pulmonary or other health problems that would make one type of machine better for you than another (the most common types of machines being cpap, autopap, bipap.)

*whether or not size of the machine matters

*whether or not you want heated humidification.

And the list goes on....

I personally would want at least an autopap machine, even though a straight cpap would treat me fine. I'd want a feature to give exhalation relief (C-flex) when the machine was operating in auto mode, even though I can exhale ok against the pressures I use. I'd want a heated humidifier. I'd want to use software so I could see on my own computer what the machine had been doing during the nightly treatment.

Do a lot of digging into the message board posts. Look at the names of equipment others are using. Read why. There are a lot of differences in opinion as well as differences in what machine features are important to different people.

Good luck!