reminded me of something.
Not so long ago, I decided to go to a "support" group meeting sponsored by a nearby major hospital that has a very big sleep clinic. It was not an "A.W.A.K.E." group - it was entirely done by the hospital's sleep clinic doctor and staff. I sat through a power point presentation the head sleep doctor was giving, but the interesting part happened afterwards in the back of the room where a girl from the sleep lab was showing a couple of people various masks. I wandered back to see the masks. Wonder of wonders, she had an Activa and a Swift in the stash. "Well," I thought to myself, "looks like this clinic might be a good one if they are using ResMed masks."I was sent to a sleep doc by my reg doc. I didn t know much about the machines. He gave me the reg straight pressure machine. After 15 months I was tired of the mask leaks and not knowing how I was doing. So I requested an auto from my sleep doc. He flatly refused.
After she went through explaining the masks, one guy asked the tech about autopaps. He didn't know what they were called, but it was obvious what he was asking when he said, "I've heard about some kind of smart machine that's automatic." The girl started telling him about BiPaps that have an inhale and exhale pressure.
He said, "No, I don't think that was it...it's called something automatic." Again she started in on BiPap. I began to have a feeling that she was deliberately not mentioning autopaps because she seemed quite knowledgeable about masks and had answered his other questions easily.
I had vowed that I was not going to say a word...just listen, but I couldn't stand it another minute. After she got through with her second explanation of BiPaps, I said to the man, "Maybe what you've heard about is an autopap. They are set for a range of pressures." Then I looked at the girl expectantly, waiting for her to explain autopaps to the man. But, whoa! Talk about a storm cloud brewing. If looks could have killed.... lol!!
The man said, "Yeah! Yeah! I think that's what it was! How do those work?" I said nothing. The girl said nothing. He asked her again, and finally here's what she said: "We don't use those here. We only use cpap and bipap." I sat back to wait, because the man was obviously not going to let that go by.
He asked that magnificent word, "Why?" LOL!
The girl said, "The doctor doesn't like them."
The man asked, "Why not?"
And here's what she said (remember, we're talking about autopaps): "The doctor doesn't like them because those machines wait until you're having an apnea before they raise the pressure. The doctor doesn't want you to have apneas."
The man is looking very puzzled at this point, and why wouldn't he? I mean, what's the point of a machine that would deliberately let you have apneas before they do something about them?
So, I ventured a comment: "I have an autopap and it works fine for me. It senses subtle changes in breathing and uses just enough pressure to keep my throat open... preventing apneas, not just waiting for them to happen."
The girl looked like she was chewing nails. She leaned back in her chair with the age-old defensive body language gesture of arms folded across chest and said, "That's not how they work."
I said, "Well, I'm not going to argue with you, but I've had three different autopaps and the software for each to see my nightly data. They've all worked well for me. My current one is the newest Auto with C-Flex."
The girl said, "The doctor doesn't like C-flex either."
At that it was all I could do to keep from laughing out loud. I began gathering up my coat and handbag. The girl pushed her chair back farther and didn't ask the man if he had any other questions. heh.
By now, the man who had been scribbling furiously on a notepad during all this, is fighting to keep a straight face. Later, out in the empty hospital lobby, he and I talked for about an hour. He filled up several pages of the notepad, saying, "THAT's what I wanted to know." "THAT's the kind of thing I came here to find out about."
I never actually spoke with the sleep doctor herself. After her underling parroted what she had obviously picked up from the doctor herself - "The doctor doesn't like autopaps because they wait until an apnea happens" - I didn't see any reason to meet the doctor, who had been occupied with several other people in another part of the big room.
Oh, and I forgot to mention....it's a Board Certified Sleep Doctor. "Doesn't like autopaps." LOL! There seem to be a lot of them out there - autopaps AND "sleep doctors" who are anti-autopap.
Unfortunately, there are also a lot of uncomfortable patients dropping out of cpap treatment right and left. What a shame.
