Just Diagnoised with OSA

I'm sure that you have read a bizillion of these posts so I will keep it short.

I'm sick of the medical community. If they hook up one more probe or shave any more of my leg hair we are going to have some issues....

In an interesting turn of fate I am in a way a part of the community as I Work for a major electronics company (which I do not represent in any way in the form) and calibrate biomedical test equipment. (You know stuff make sure life saving equipment doesn't take your life instead.

I have been working at identifying my source of tiredness/sleepyness for a long time and feel like I'm in the home stretch.

I have been diagnosed with Mild OSA (Don't rember the number maby it was 10 or 11)

Wondering what cpap or auto cpap is recommended for those who are not in the know. I don't have the prescription in hand but will pick it up tomorrow.

I have looked into non medical treament for OSA but I don't smoke or drink and weigh 150 so weigh loss out of the question and I already work out regularly. Oh and if I sleep on my left side my events go up to 44 If I remember correctly.

So anyway I was looking at the https://www.cpap.com/productpage-bundle ... undle.html
One is I have Aetna Insurance and they are really starting to annoy me and I have not had any luck with the medial equipment provider that I was refered to. They seem to be unable to call me back in a timely manner.
Tired of dealing with them so I'm don't care I will pay for it myself. At least I get to pick the features myself rather than being told what I qualify for.

Other than the cost would this be a good choice biased upon my vague amount of information I have provided?

Thanks for reading my part rant part introduction part question.

I hope things change when I finally get a machine so I can start treatment.

I think you have picked out a great setup. I have the older 'tank' version and am very happy with it. I think you will be just as happy with yours.
Keep in mind the 'M' series has som issues. The Humidifier tanks can leak, and they loose 2 days of data on a regular basis. The 'tank' version doesn't have these problems.

Brenda

I think you are referring to your pressure when you say 10 or 11. At this pressure you may like to run the machine on Auto, but you can always run it as a regular CPAP if you find you like that better. Don't need an Auto script to buy online, CPAP is fine.

Since you are buying with your own money I would definately get an auto.

Nice machine you have picked out (classic -- tank) is nice too. Bundle saves money.

With that machine you are all set.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

My stuff from CPAP.com comes really fast and I have always been pleased.

From the sound of it the tank is the way most people go. I'll have to consider that. While its nice to have something that is pleasing to the eye and small having somthing that works better and lasts is more important. Tooooo many options...

I am also newly diagnosed and ended up purchasing the M series bundle you are looking at. I had read about the leak situation, so I situated my machine on a little stand between my bed and my nightstand - lower than the bed - and I have the whole setup in a shallow plastic box just in case it leaks. I will have had it a month tomorrow and it hasn't leaked yet. If I were you, I'd purchase the auto machine (m series or tank) and let the insurance take their time and give you whatever machine you qualify for and use it as a backup machine.

I've learned a great deal already from this site and continue to learn every day!

UltraApple wrote:From the sound of it the tank is the way most people go.

Bear in mind that those of us with "tanks" have had them a while and adjusted to their idiocyncracies. The "tanks" are a long way from being perfect, and there have been heated discussions a few times when folks have pointed some of the flaws out.

No doubt, some of the issues with the "M" series have been due to manufacturing issues associated with a new production run. Hopefully, those issues are mostly resolved now.

If I were in the market for a new machine, I'd base my decision on features and use the "Consumer Reports" approach to reliability. CU typically just provides reliability survey results based on manufacturers.

On this forum there have been many reports of reliability issues with PB machines and very few problems with ResMed machines. Reports of problems with Respironics machines fall somewhere in between.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Bill

Hi there,

I got the auto adjust. because my allergic reaction to the sleep study tape disqualified from the follow up sleep study. (on schucks, I really wanted to pay another $4520/$3616 my share)
They put me on the auto adjust for 30 days to see what my breathing was doing at night.
Then, they pull the card and read the data.
The nurse set my constant pressure at 10 but I had to have my husband change mine back to auto. I was swallowing a lot of air and my acid reflux fired up something awful. An OSA diag. was a long, frustrating, and costly road for me.

Dr. Parks told me that OSA is genetic and that plenty of his patients are children and or very slender people.

I told Apria...'I have to pay $770 for a machine I know nothing about... How do I know which one to get?' So far, I like the C-Flex RemStar Auto CPAP (w/ humidifier) that they picked out for me.
-Bev

UltraApple wrote: Wondering what cpap or auto cpap is recommended for those who are not in the know.

An auto is the most flexible as it can work as a standard cpap as well.

UltraApple wrote: So anyway I was looking at the https://www.cpap.com/productpage-bundle ... undle.html

Thats a fine machine (baring the two issues already mentioned), its the one I have myself.

You can save yourself some money by getting the smartcard from http://www.two-factor.com/

The M Series Pro and Auto machines had 2 "issues" (problems).
One was a leaking humidifier tank which they have resolved by sending out new tanks to the users with leaking ones.
The other issue as has been reported on this forum, is that the data collection to the Smart Cards will only collect for about 5 (or 6) straight nights and then take a break for a couple of days before it starts recording again.

Den

Wulfman wrote: The other issue as has been reported on this forum, is that the data collection to the Smart Cards will only collect for about 5 (or 6) straight nights and then take a break for a couple of days before it starts recording again.

Actually it seem to be more complicated that that. It doesn't always happen every 5 or 6 days. I think the jury is still out on the exact pattern of data loss. For me its often when the card has 7 sessions exactly and its a Saturday night. For others its been different.

Maybe someone should start another thread or poll and see if we can determine an exact pattern that explains everyones data loss?

I have had the 2 days off problem. Recently, I erased my card 2 days in a row, and the card recorded data for 27 days before taking another 2 day break. Hard to explain that.

Catnapper

So, it boils down to whether you are a hard core "numbers-holic" or not. If not, you would be very happy with the bundle you selected.

If you are, then you might seriously consider the Classic/Tank - it's numbers are tried and true.


Regarding Numbers: Note: You probably will want to “Not erase” your card at first. Because if you have to uninstall Encore Pro, any data you read off your card will be lost – unless you tell your computer to “not erase” the card. Here is how you safeguard your data:

There's a program/file in C:\Program Files\Respironics\Encore Pro\Utilities called "Don't erase data after download.reg". Do a double-click on it and it will come up with a confirmation box.....click "Yes" and that should keep your card from being automatically erased. But you will still have the option to erase or not every time you download data.