Does your doc mind if you............

Knowledge is power. We control our lives and treatment. If they don't like it, let them deal with the sheep.

Janknitz wrote:I didn't know we had to learn to speak French to use CPAP!

I was living in Quebec at the time in a French neighbourhood. Actually it shocked me when I went in and realized just how much easier it was to speak French compared to the previous time pre cpap. It really showed how OSA was doing a number on my brain.

My guy at the VA (not a doc, tech, or DME - not really sure what he is) actually likes that I'm proactive with my own care. I've never seen the doc (this is the VA after all), so not sure what he/she would think about it.

My 2nd sleep doctor was definitely in favor of it but it was clear to me that the third and current sleep doctor were uncomfortable with my being able to do it. It was really interesting to see their body language when they found out I knew how to change pressures. I felt like I had cracked a secret code.

49er

49er wrote:My 2nd sleep doctor was definitely in favor of it but it was clear to me that the third and current sleep doctor were uncomfortable with my being able to do it. It was really interesting to see their body language when they found out I knew how to change pressures. I felt like I had cracked a secret code.

49er

Exactly!

CapnLoki wrote: I was about to mention that most doctors under 30 would assume that the average CPAP user can't set the time on the VCR let alone adjust the pressure, but realized that most people under 30 don't know what a VCR is!

RogerSC wrote:Started at 4-10cm with a 30 minute ramp from my sleep doctor, but I didn't have a titration study, so he had just guessed from experience. That got me down to an average AHI of about 1.5, not bad. Now I've turned off the ramp and am at 11-13cm, and my AHI is usually less than 1. He hasn't said anything about my changing the pressure, just likes my sleep data. Which is all fine with me. I think that if I brought it up, he'd be fine with it, but unless he brings it up I have no reason to.

My situation was similar to Roger's. Titration study was a bust and doc just started me with 6-12.

Not enough air for comfortable breathing so FIRST thing after a test run nap, I upped it to 8, then, 9, 10 in rapid succession after the first change to the minimum put the max at 16.

With my numbers it is pretty easy to see this is very close to where I will stay, but I might tweak it a bit.

I just finished my 6th day, 100% compliant with more than 8 hours sleep, all on the machine.

Adjusted from AHI 12 down to an average (including that) of AHI 4 and the last couple of sessions have been around 2 or less. Last night was 0.9 and there isn't much more that can be done with the APAP since several of the 9 events are bogus and the rest are marginal CAs.

As someone else said, I am a computer geek and you folks had told me how to get access the clinical menu before the machine even arrived. My job is to troubleshoot problems so no way was the treatment going to drive me nuts, be less than fully effective, or have to wait for 3 weeks to see the doc.

No telling what the guy will say, and it's just something that will need to be dealt with. I did mumble something to the nurse about having needed more air, and it was the weekend when I started with the doc unavailable to give permission.

Seriously, the doc doesn't have the time to look at each patients weekly average much less the dailies. The doc is only going to see people ever 3 to 12 months, and even that first followup is almost a month from my start.

UPDATE: Based on recommendations from my dentist and others here (thanks Pugsy I think), I made an ENT appointment with my wife's ENT today -- turns out he is a sleep doc too. So if my current sleep doc get bent out of shape over it then I will just switch to the new ENT/sleep doc.

If he is cool, I might switch my cardiology to the 1st sleep doc since he doubles THAT specialty.

My first sleep doc wouldn't have approved. My second doc probably wouldn't have minded, but she retired about a year after I started seeing her, and my pressure needs were pretty well set at that point, so no need for a change (by her or by me), and the topic didn't arise.

Haven't seen a sleep doc in almost four years now, and I certainly wouldn't entertain one who would frown on me changing the pressure myself. I'm a lot wiser now than when I started therapy.