My Sleep Doc Hit me!

A positive experience with a sleep doctor would be really great -- especially for all the money I get to spend on mine...

When I mentioned A-pap he almost hit me as well -- and not a high five! Same when I mentioned the on-line community of users. He went ballistic on me!

I'm dumping off this sleep doc for my regular GP, who will continue to write the scrip for my treatment and equipment needs at $20 copay per visit versus $1200 co-pay.

My original diagnosis called for bi-pap, but that didn't get prescribed or authorized, so I ended up with the Resmed M-flex unit. At lest it has a-flex capability, which I've since learned to set up and run.

My original diagnosis was for 16 pressure -- and they forced me to sleep on my back during the sleep test - -worst possible scenario for pressures for me - and I never sleep on my back at all, unless I fall asleep in the lounger chair watching tv. On my first check up visit (another $1200 ) I explained that 16 pressure was blowing the mask right off my face and that I couldn't live with it. Doc told me to quit being a whiner and deal with it...

I got a bit forceful after that, and explained that I had experimented with A-pap, with 16.5 as my high and 9.0 as my low. He basically cussed me out in doctor talk... I asked him if he checked my charts... He cussed me out again. But when he looked at the charts, he "decided" that 13 was my new number, right out of thin air...

I'm back at home -- and running a-flex at 16.6 with 11 as the low -- My AHI is .8, my leaks are down to just a tad over built-in mask leakage, and I'm sleeping with the machine for 5.5 hours a night (my total time in bed!).

Bye-bye evil sleep doc..