Lending my CPAP to a Friend

[Thatgirl]

My friend has been having LOTS of fatigue lately. She had a sleep study that showed no apnea. I suspect an UARS component. I'm going to lend her my CPAP to try out for a week and see if it makes a difference. My apnea is mild and I don't notice if I miss a few nights. I uploaded to SleepyHead just now. What do I need to do to make sure her data and mine don't get confused? Should I erase the card? How?

How should I disinfect my tubing? I've washed my mask and humidifier with warm water, dish soap, and just a few drops of bleach.

[Julie]

Your friend needs to see a doctor and be tested for all the many things that could be causing her problems. She may in fact feel somewhat better (placebo effect?) on it, but so what? It doesn't mean she has apnea, doesn't mean she doesn't have another problem that needs treating asap, doesn't mean anything. And you wouldn't know what pressures to try her at... but that would be the least of things. There are people who auto-titrate with Apaps because they 'know' they have OSA (maybe diagnosed in the past) and can't afford machines, so we steer them to e.g. Secondwind, but your friend could have thyroid trouble, or who knows what and playing with Cpap instead of getting checked out is only delaying things. After all, she did have a study and a negative result. And what if, just what if, something else is going that Cpap is contraindicated for (there may be a few of those), will she turn around and sue you if something goes wrong?

[Thatgirl]

She's seen multiple doctors and is currently being treated for narcolepsy, but still doesn't feel well. This is just to see if there seems to be some resistance going on that might make pursuing another sleep study worth it. It's an auto-titrating machine, so I'm not picking a pressure at all. She's had blood work multiple times, ruled out thyroid, vitamin deficiencies, seen neurology, even seen psychiatry, etc.

[Julie]

Not your problem. And if she does have some form of OSA (but with e.g. central components) things would not be diagnosed as regular machines don't pick that up. I personally would ask my doctor for a cardiology consult (if it hasn't been done), but that's just me.

[Thatgirl]

Cardiology consult is an excellent idea. I will suggest that to her.

[Pugsy]

To answer your question about what to do so the information on the machine and SD card doesn't get mixed up.
If you no longer are under any scrutiny from your DME or insurance company I would just erase the data on the machine and the SD card and start fresh.
It will have to be that both the machine and the SD card don't have your data on it to keep it totally separate.
And when the machine comes back to you then another machine erase and SD card erase.

SleepyHead won't care either way...just create a new user profile.
If you need additional instructions send me a PM.
I just delivered one of my spare machines to someone to try out...so I know how to do it.