First night with my Cpap

Well last night was my first night with my cpap machine. It was a really weird feeling i guess. I was concentrating more on the air flow vs actually trying to sleep. Hopefully things get better the more I use it. Any advice people can give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Things WILL get better, I couldn't use mine the first week. Had to get meds to fight panic, NOW, I can't wait to go to bed. I wish I had started cpap long ago. Just a thought...don't fret about the air, its there AND if the electricity goes off nothing will happen to you, when that happens it usually wakes me up and I just slip off the mask & wait for elec to come back. You can still breath with the mask on with no problem though. Welcome and there are lots of smart people here that will help in any way.

Unfortunately, the model of your machine doesn't give any data beyond compliance... what are the chances you can switch it to a better one?

Welcome to the forum.

First piece of advice....you are showing the S9 Escape in your equipment profile...are you aware it doesn't collect any useful data beyond hours of use? Meaning if you have problems you have zero way to try to isolate what might be going on with your therapy.
Take it back and make them give you a machine that will collect efficacy data so you can monitor your therapy effectiveness. Heck, right now you can't even tell if mask leaks are a potential problem and believe me....people do sleep right through some pretty massive leaks...I am living proof.

See this blog especially the part down at the bottom of the page "help I have been given a brick"
http://maskarrayed.wordpress.com/
also would hurt to read this part
http://maskarrayed.wordpress.com/what-y ... me-part-i/
since it talks about what insurance does and your DME might try to tell you that your insurance won't pay for a full data machine and that's hogwash.

In the Resmed brand you want at least the S9 Elite cpap machine....the S9 AutoSet would be ideal.
Don't accept the Escape Auto either...the data it does offer is sorely limited and doesn't even include leak data.

You may not think data is important but without it you have zero way to isolate anything that might be a potential problem and believe me....there are numerous potential problems. Right now if you go back to the doc or DME and say you are having issues...the only thing they can ever say when you use a brick machine is "give it time" or "let's try a different mask" or "try a chin strap" or more "give it time"....
It's better to have the data available if you need it than to need it and not have it.

Thanks Knothead. And Julie, I dont know. I guess i should give my DME a call today and tell them i was under the impression my machine would collect more data and i demand a replacement. Ill get on it today. Thanks

Thanks Pugsy. Will do!!

Well I called and the DME said i need my doctor to write a new prescription for me to get my machine switched out. I called my doctor and the said the DME is wrong and they should be able to use the old prescription and just come and switch the machine. So my doctor said he will call the DME and figure out whats going on. So that is as far as it went. I'm supposed to hear something today from my doctor. Crossing my fingers its not gonna be a problem.

djshorte wrote:Well I called and the DME said i need my doctor to write a new prescription for me to get my machine switched out.

That would be stall/refusal tactic number 1.
Which isn't true at all unless the doctor specifically specified the Escape model which doctors rare specify models (heck they rarely specify brands) and you already found out your doctor didn't specify.

Stall tactic number 2 might be "your insurance won't pay for it"...which is an outright lie. 99.9% of the insurances out there pay by HCPCS code which has nothing at all to do with brand or model within the cpap/apap type of machines.

hahaha. Ill stay on top of them. Hoping to get the replacement asap.