Respiratory Businesses

I know I have posted quite a bit the last couple of days, but thank goodness I found you ! I have been non-compliant with my ResMed APAP for the past six months, but after reading some of these encouraging posts, I am ready to try again. I was probably naive but I thought I was stuck going to the Respiratory Technician next door to the doctor's office. Don't ask me why, but I never thought about going to the internet. The respiratory business I was sent to is extremely difficult to deal with and is part of the problem. I won't go into it, but I would much rather purchase my mask on-line and fit it myself. I know that I will have to periodically check in so that they can monitor my progress, etc. But I absolutely detest their attitude towards their patients, their restrictive hours, location, and mark-up on the equipment. I can do this if I can just find the right mask for me.

There's no reason for you to periodically check anything with them, not if you have a data capable machine, one that collects data all night on your leak rates (both mask and machine), AHI, flow rates, and a whole lot of other information on how well your therapy's working. If you can post your equipment model and full name on your Profile (User control panel top left) we can tell you if you have one of the 'right' machines, and how to get the data from it yourself. As far as masks go, there should be other dealers in your area (look under "oxygen" in the yellow pgs), but if you want to do everything online, that's ok, but I'd check with your insurance to find out how often they cover which items, i.e. machine (usually every 5 yrs, and masks every 3-6 mos). In any case, go to Cpap.com and look at all the different types of masks - be aware though that many 'sound' like the right one, but are not necessarily very popular because e.g. they leak, or don't fit anyone very well, etc. so look at the 'reviews' of each mask lower on each page. Once you think you have found a couple of likely ones (and consider full face masks rather than nasal ones, even if you don't mouth breathe when asleep losing all the cpap air, they come in handy when you have a cold) then you can try the masks out if you pay the small insurance fee attached to each, so you can return those you don't like.