Don't throw stones, I'm just a tech :)

[Moby]

welcome Southern Girl!

Thank you for your interest in helping people with SDB.

I look forward to your input. We have a few professionals here who post regularly. As you say, "finger wagging" doesn't go down well here, but where does it? Nowhere I know. You sound like someone genuinely interested, not an authoritarian come to set us straight!

And, like Rooster said, if you never get slammed, you're probably not contributing. Most of us try to be kind all the time, some are "professional grouches" (you know who by now I'm sure!) and sometimes the best of us are just foggy and sleep deprived. The net isn't always the best means of communication, and a joke is taken the wrong way for instance.

People seem to be really loving the new Swift LT. Are you getting good feedback on it too?

Regards

Di

[roster]

should probably cross check the IP addresses of the Southern_Girl character and the troll techs who started the recent flame war thread.

-superjet

I'm not quite sure what you're implying. The war thread? The link that was posted on page 2? Check IP addys all day. I had nothing to do with that. That was done by someone who lacked any sort of tact. I believe I made it through 3 or so pages before I could read no more. There is a way to speak with people, an amount of RESPECT we ALL deserve, and the tech (if even a tech) who started that thread lacked all of the above. Besides Dustin, you should know me a little better than that my BFF

SG,

If you are going to worry about politics and respond to them, you won't be much help here. The great majority here silently judge members by what they contribute, not by how well they defend themselves in political arguments.

Rooster

[Mile High Sleeper]

Welcome, Southern Girl.

My sleep tech was excellent, very professional, went out of his way to help the next morning, and told me about cpaptalk.com. I hope your fellow sleep techs also tell patients about this forum.

Sleep Dr. Barry Krakow (who has posted to this forum) suggests in his book that sleep techs have much experience with sleep apnea and are under-used in helping sleep apnea patients post-diagnosis because of the way the health care system is set up. From what I've personally experienced, the sleep tech does a much better job with sleep apnea patients than the respiratory therapists at the DME. If not for this forum and the lead sleep tech at the hospital helping out on his own at critical points, my xPAP therapy wouldn't have been successful.

As you move forward in your career, please help the uninformed respiratory therapists acquire the information and skills they need to better help sleep apnea patients.

I look forward to your contributions to the forum.

MHS

[ColinP]

Firstly let me start by welcoming you to the forum, Southern_Girl. It's always good to have professionals around, because we can learn from you, as you can learn from us. You have the formal knowledge and training, whereas we have some practical knowledge, and above all the experience of living with CPAP.

The relationship between the patients and the medics should really be symbiotic, where each gains something.

Having said that, I'd also like to take you to task. You ask us not to 'name call' or 'throw stones'. Well, by doing that you pre-judged us just as you accused us of pre-judging you. You accuse us of lumping all sleep techs together, and by doing that you lump all of us together, and label us aggressive and intolerant.

Well, we're not aggressive (I'll concede 'robust'), but we are a little intolerant. We don't tolerate treatment that is ineffective, and we do something about our condition. We accept responsibility for our lives and we tweak out treatment until it works for us. We do that by openly discussing all issues relevant (and some not) to OSA and xPAP, and we do it by trying things that make sense and have worked for others. If that makes you defensive, perhaps that is an issue you need to deal with, but I suggest that accusing us of being on the verge of a flame war is not the best approach. I have seen one flame war in the six months I have been reading this forum, and I can't even remember what it was about.

Please don't see this as an attack - it's not. It's a statement of who we are and what we do. If you want to be accepted here, you need to accept us for who we are. We are quite happy to accept you even if your opinion on mouth taping and adjusting pressure (or any other issue) is different to ours, and we are happy to debate it with you. Vigorously - as we debate everything But please don't get upset and leave if you don't agree with us.

So, please hang around and engage with us, you'll find that we're really just a bunch of regular guys, with a hose and mask in common.

[Guest]

should probably cross check the IP addresses of the Southern_Girl character and the troll techs who started the recent flame war thread.

-superjet

I'm not quite sure what you're implying. The war thread? The link that was posted on page 2? Check IP addys all day. I had nothing to do with that. That was done by someone who lacked any sort of tact. I believe I made it through 3 or so pages before I could read no more. There is a way to speak with people, an amount of RESPECT we ALL deserve, and the tech (if even a tech) who started that thread lacked all of the above. Besides Dustin, you should know me a little better than that my BFF

SG,

If you are going to worry about politics and respond to them, you won't be much help here. The great majority here silently judge members by what they contribute, not by how well they defend themselves in political arguments.

Rooster

That's not a political argument. And not even an argument.

[-SWS]

That's not a political argument. And not even an argument.

Sounded to me like an upbeat philosophy more than anything, S_G.

I have to resonate with a sentiment that has been repeatedly expressed in this and other threads: for many of us the sleep technologists have been by far the most functional component in the end-to-end sleep-related DX/RX experience.

And in almost all cases that singular functional relationship is severed just as soon as we walk out the lab. Then it's on to what is typically the most dysfunctional and horrendous component in our end-to-end sleep-medicine experience: the local DME providers. That's where things typically start to go wrong. Very wrong. That's where the most crucial period of follow-up is often apathetically or inexpertly administered, if it's administered at all. At that stage many of us receive little more than a CPAP machine that is hastily tucked under our arms with a condescending pat on the head.

Sleep doctor? Never met mine. His only involvement was to approve and comment on my already-scored PSG. Thank goodness for my congenial and extremely competent general practitioner, who doesn't leave me feeling totally alienated from the overall sleep-medicine picture. But sleep is not his specialty. So more importantly, thank goodness for all the information I received from the Internet, including these message boards.

Any chain is as strong as its weakest link. This medicinal chain unfortunately has quite a few dysfunctional links. And that dysfunctional chain is undoubtedly reflected in very dismal 40% compliance rate estimates for a post-RX neglected "gold standard of treatment". But alas, post-RX follow-up is never neglected on laissez-faire patient message boards. Despite the potentially disconcerting laissez-faire approach, I am certain compliance rates are much higher than 40% among our "interactively involved" message board members.

But I am not at all certain sleep medicine fully understands the importance of highly interactive post-RX follow-up.

[goose]

I was a fortunate one -- my doctor was very involved, the sleep techs were excellent and to start out with the DME was actually ok (just ok)......

My doc has "retired" to raise her family (and add one to it), have never seen any of the techs since my PSG and titration, and my DME has gone into the toilet -- especially since my machine is now mine, and they're not soaking the insurance company anymore. The doc referred me to another doc that's about 30 miles away so I suppose I need to make an appointment to begin my evaluation......

When I was first diagnosed, I googled and found the "other forum" and worked with it for a week or so and found it was essentially useless because of the policies of deleting links to good information (especially if they were commercial), and their propensity to sugar coat everything and "demand" the "medical system" route. The one GREAT thing that came out of that board is that I found this one - through a post that essentially said, "If you want help and good information regarding this treatment, go to cpaptalk.com. There's no censorship there". Couldn't believe it made it through the moderators censor button.....

As far as compliance, I believe I would have been compliant with or without the forum (I'm one of those that couldn't wait to get my "stuff"), but this forum has made it much easier because of the information presented and much more enjoyable because of the people here.....It would have been immensely more difficult without this board because I would have had to rely on "the system"......

There is a great abyss of disconnection within the industry. That needs to be fixed -- badly!!!! I don't think it's necessarily the fault of the individuals in the system -- I think the problem is sytemic -- I have found very caring people trying to work within a very broken system, so I generally don't "rag" on people, just the overall umbrella.

Anyway -- that's my two pennies for now......

cheers
goose

[DreamStalker]

Well then here 'ya go goose, try throwing this one at the umbrella ...

[-SWS]

Well then here 'ya go goose, try throwing this one at the umbrella ...

Only to discover that one of Richard C. Tomasul's apnea curing exercises doubles as an apnea-umbrella curing exercise.

I'm thinking Rich92109 could have charged at least $22.95 for those cure-all gems...

[Snoredog]

That's not a political argument. And not even an argument.

Sounded to me like an upbeat philosophy more than anything, S_G.

I have to resonate with a sentiment that has been repeatedly expressed in this and other threads: for many of us the sleep technologists have been by far the most functional component in the end-to-end sleep-related DX/RX experience.

And in almost all cases that singular functional relationship is severed just as soon as we walk out the lab. Then it's on to what is typically the most dysfunctional and horrendous component in our end-to-end sleep-medicine experience: the local DME providers. That's where things typically start to go wrong. Very wrong. That's where the most crucial period of follow-up is often apathetically or inexpertly administered, if it's administered at all. At that stage many of us receive little more than a CPAP machine that is hastily tucked under our arms with a condescending pat on the head.

Sleep doctor? Never met mine. His only involvement was to approve and comment on my already-scored PSG. Thank goodness for my congenial and extremely competent general practitioner, who doesn't leave me feeling totally alienated from the overall sleep-medicine picture. But sleep is not his specialty. So more importantly, thank goodness for all the information I received from the Internet, including these message boards.

Any chain is as strong as its weakest link. This medicinal chain unfortunately has quite a few dysfunctional links. And that dysfunctional chain is undoubtedly reflected in very dismal 40% compliance rate estimates for a post-RX neglected "gold standard of treatment". But alas, post-RX follow-up is never neglected on laissez-faire patient message boards. Despite the potentially disconcerting laissez-faire approach, I am certain compliance rates are much higher than 40% among our "interactively involved" message board members.

But I am not at all certain sleep medicine fully understands the importance of highly interactive post-RX follow-up.

[goose]

All righty then.......That would take care of the umbrella........

cheers
goose