Graphs...Charts..Data...Oh My!

[SnoozyQ]

I think that is a good idea....I would like a full blood panel done, so I can have a recent reading of what's going on to rule out issues that may be working against me.
Hopefully, the doctor will not disagree....

[robysue]

A PCP who's listening to a patient complain of exhaustion and fatigue usually will automatically think about ordering blood tests for thyroid and anemia. If yours doesn't, then ask politely but firmly, "Could it be my thyroid? Could it be anemia? Can you order blood tests to make sure it's not one of these things causing my exhaustion?"

One thing about thyroid tests, though. The most common is just a TSH by itself. That may or may not be enough to pick up a subtle thyroid problem. The full panel includes a TSH test, a T3 test, and a T4 test if I recall.

Good luck

[robysue]

Oh no...from what you are telling me, there's no way the time is set correctly. It goes on my face from bedtime(around 10:30pm)to wake up(around 6 am) every day (that I am able to go to work!!).
And I don't know how to set the time--didn't know there was an option! My RT didn't explain much to me about the machine, other than how to put the (wrong!)mask on, turn it on,change a filter and mail the card when asked.

Tell the RT who set your machine up that the time on the machine is set wrong. And ask her to reset it for you. Or look for posts by Uncle_Bob and download the clinical manual for the S9. Or both. There's also a recent post by me in response to a thread started by xenablue about S9's and daylight savings time. I gave xena complete step-by-step instructions in that post.

I feel like such a moron! Now it's going to show completely flawed data and I didn't even know....

I feel like I'm kicking my own butt!

The data is not "completely flawed". It's only skewed by maybe two or three hours or so. In other words, if the time setting is off by 2 hours, then events shown happening at, say 1 in the morning, really happened, but they happened at 3 in the morning.

And there's no need to kick your own butt---the RT is the one who didn't set the time correctly.

[SnoozyQ]

I have the clinical manual downloaded at home, so I will correct the time when I get home. Thanks

I think my DME has changed names 3 times since we started....so I will use them as a last resort on this issue. It's bad enough I've had to call them a bazillion times to arrange pick up for a mask that was too big (they ordered larger, when should have been smaller). However they did manage to get a bill to my mailbox each and every day for that very mask....
How does one find out if insurance works with any other area DME?? Call the insurance company or the DME you'd like to use?

[Roman Hokie]

Hmm...I uploaded to Flickr and used the IMG tag....are they not showing up? They are for me

My employer's firewall... sorry. My bad.

[idamtnboy]

How does one find out if insurance works with any other area DME?? Call the insurance company or the DME you'd like to use?

Your insurance company probably has a list of approved providers on their web site. BCBS does.

[Tielman]

Hmm...I uploaded to Flickr and used the IMG tag....are they not showing up? They are for me

My employer's firewall... sorry. My bad.

It's not your employer's firewall, it's a web filtering device (such as Websense) that does that kind of filtering. Flickr and cpaptalk.com both use port 80, and HTTP protocol, so if it's open for one it's open for all. Websense will allow your employer to filter out things like personal email, Flickr, Facebook, and other time wasting systems that *they* deem to be bad for the employees to access.

Yes, I am a firewall and Websense engineer who works on these every day.

[SnoozyQ]

Found the time setting....it was a few hours off So at least now that part is taken care of.

[SnoozyQ]

Now I'm in the detailed data review.....flow limitations,snore index,etc.

I have "events" marked as obstructive or central, with a number on it. What does this mean?

Sorry for all the questions....I'm just trying to understand it all....

[robysue]

I have "events" marked as obstructive or central, with a number on it. What does this mean?
..

These are the apneas that the S9 detected. The number represents how long the apnea lasted according to the S9's software detection algorithm.

The S9 also has an algorithm to classify apneas as obstructive (your airway is collapsed and blocked) or central (your airway is open, but no air is moving through it because your brain forgot to send the order to breathe). The central apnea detection algortihm is not 100% perfect, but according to Resmed it properly classifies apneas for something like 95% of the detected apneas.

A hypopnea shows up as a little blue square. The S9 does not measure the length of a hypopnea and it does not attempt to determine if the hypopnea is essentially obstructive in nature (airway partially collapsed) or not.