Snoredog you are right. The Dr didn't get a good reading, so prescribed the one that auto adjusts and gave a higher top number. He ran around an 8 before seeing the Dr at the 30 day mark but now seems to be running closer to 10.Snoredog wrote: my guess:
NOT at this stage, his doctor is probably using the machine with a wide range to confirm his pressure, apparently they didn't get a solid reading from the PSG. So they put him on an Autopap from 5 to 20 to verify pressure.
Roubia - I feel for you with Apria, we would still be struggling if we were using them. Optioncare was great in comparison, about the 2nd one he said something like this one is ok, but she kept pulling them out saying you get to swap out for a second one today but you won't get another one for 6 months so be sure. She even went in the other room to get another one. Until he hit that last one, there was not a huge improvement. Having someone just hand you a mask and say take that one, 90% chance it would not have worked. So now we feel officially spoiled, having a very nice full recliner overstuffed chair and having the time to spend a couple of minutes fussing with adjustments then another couple of minutes "tossing and turning" while reclining.
There has got to be a place you can go try them on. Is there another service center you can go to when you are ready to buy another mask and try them all on even if you have to pay for the mask yourself (seems like it would really be useful to me, this new mask is 200% better and 150% better than any others he tried on). Optioncare prices are not that bad compared to some I read here, but that maybe because of their contract with our insurance company.
We went to the Drs and got the results. Severe sleep apnea, he stopped breathing 91 times an hour. Much worse than we thought. He got no rem sleep, no stage 4 sleep, was aroused to almost awake many times an hour, etc. Average oxygen saturation in high 80s/low 90s, but dropped to the 70s for a low. We were suspect he had apnea and it was wearing down his body but we didn't know it was so bad. I started changing my "we should have done this 20 years ago" to "we should have done this 50 years ago", even though he was only a toddler 50 years ago. I felt guilty I didn't nag him harder, but neither of us really understood the effects, I think recent research has raised better awareness about the health problems associated with apnea.
He now is wearing the Cpap about 7.5 hours a night (up from 6.5 hours several weeks ago). I have done some nudging in my best wifely voice saying he should have it on whenever he lies down to rest/nap, and when he glares at me I say but you won't "rest" without it. I know the cpap is a pain in the butt and he is very tempted to cheat at times and take if off for a while while sleeping or take a nap without it and told him this and that I am just trying to counter those urges. But he is doing real good now using it almost all the time he is sleeping, doing all the care himself, etc. so I can just praise him and stop nagging him (though we will monitor usage to keep him on track).