So it all started years ago with my then fiance, telling me I got to do something about my snoring, or she wont marry me! I was ok with my snoring as I always had been and sleep was not a problem for me at the time, but they sent me for a sleep study, worst experience of my life and I swore I would never do another! During the study they quickly realized I had it bad, they fitted a machine to me quickly, I kept ripping it off, barely got any sleep once they started that and just left early in the morning before it was officially done! Got a machine prescribed to me, and tried for my wife to use it over the next few months, never could, hated every minute of it. I guess things got a little better, since we did get married but about a couple years later of her dealing with my snoring, she started to have to leave the room in the night. A year later I started to sleep in the guest room, since it was so bad. I was starting to get more tired at work, and during the day, starting to fall sleep during boring things like driving, or watching tv. When I was starting to fall asleep at my desk at work, I knew I had to try to make this thing work, no matter how much I hated the machine and feeling like I was drowning in air. Went back to the doctor since it had been years since my last visit, they asked for a new study which i refused, but agreed to do the home study! Much easier, and I would recommend this to anyone, it gave them the info they needed without having to go to the facility and get woke up all night long.
Turns out I had a very dangerously high score according to them, not sure if they were trying to scare me into using it more, or what, but they said I was now at about 120 events per hour which I now know is high, and what they were more worried about was my oxygen dipped into the low 60s. The doctor made me realize I needed to do something about this, and thought it would help being less tired so I had to make this work. So I started using my old machine, and suffering thru it, realizing I was snoring thru the use of it, I started to adjust it, (thanks to learning how to change things). I got it to a point where I was finally snoring less and able to make it thru most of the night. I asked for a new machine since the old large loud machine I had was now like 7+ years old and I knew from reading reviews and forums that the new machines were much better. Specifically i requested to get a ResMed AirSense 10 Auto, due to the reviews and since my father also had one and swore it was a much better machine than he had ever used before. A month later, I got the machine mailed to me, and it was a Philips Dreamstation Auto, not what I talked with my doctor about. I was upset, but figured it was a insurance thing, and tried it out for the next 22 days. I had trouble dealing with it, had seemed to get the pressure right to get my AHI under 5, but did not get comfortable till I got the flex settings corrected and was able to deal with it. Only issue was it was so loud and bright my wife was waking up from it, and I was having all kinds of leak issues, and dry mouth issues.
Finally contacted them to setup my follow up appt after using it for the days of compliance, I explained my problems with the machine and I asked why I had not got the one we discussed would be ordered for me the ResMed. They informed me that they had ordered it and it was the DME who did not fill as prescribed! So a few calls later and I had the DME getting me a new ResMed to replace the Philips. Got it yesterday, and when the technician came out to deliver it I also had them change out my mask for a ResMed F20 instead of the ones they sent me with the thing on my forehead, she took back the other unopened ones and gave me new F20 masks. Last night was my first night using the machine and mask, and I just had the best night of sleep I have had in a decade!
I don't have the machine settings fixed to get it just right for me yet as I had a AHI in the 7s which with the other machine would have been a really bad night, but I felt great when I woke up late this morning! My wife who also over slept said it was the best night of sleep she has had in a while since she did not hear the unit all night and the dim light when I turned it on did not wake her up or light up the room! It was so much quieter than the Dreamstation, noticeably much quieter, like a huge difference between the 2.
Not sure how many people actually are able to get to try both machines like I have back to back, since I thought I was stuck with the one I got. So if I can help anyone on here that is looking into getting a new machine, the ResMed 10 is a much quieter machine by far and has a screen that did not light up the room like the Philips. The Philips got the job done, and had comfort settings that I was able to use to make therapy work(not set out of the box though!). So I would really recommend the ResMed, but my wife would highly recommend it by far.
Now all I need to do is get the settings on the ResMed to get my AHI down a bit since I think i would do even better getting my AHI down to 3 or under like I was able to with the Phillips on my last couple days using it. I don't want to mess with it too much since I slept great, but I think it was set to my original prescription settings which did not work well on the Philips.
- Are settings completely standard across machines?
- Is there a cross reference for settings? Like if you have a range on one machine it is equivalent to the same range on the other or does it tend to be off one way or the other for each machine?
- Are the comfort settings for the Philips the same settings for the ResMed? Like the Flex settings, since this seemed to be the one single thing that helped the most when getting the machine to work for me.
Anyway, long first post but, Thanks for having these forums and for sharing so much valuable information, I would not be such a well informed patient had I not been able to read up and then speak up on my behalf for the proper treatment to get to where I am today.
It is great not feeling so tired each day. So if there are other new people here who have had issues with the therapy, keep trying and reading up and trying new things since it can work even for someone like me who I thought would never be able to use it.
- Rich
