Question for a friend CPAPer

A co-worker of mine (also a Paramedic) has been on straight CPAP for 3 years now and is concerned he made need different pressures due to the return of some sleepiness and other symptoms. How often should a straight CPAPer get this checked? Could he just use an APAP for a week or so to get some average readings and have his doc rewrite the Rx for the new pressures? I told him to have his DME calibrate his machine to make sure that it is not off. He is super compliant about wearing the CPAP but has stuck with the same mask for the 3 years. I think our insurance limits replacement machines to every 5 years but I recommended an APAP if he was going to get a replacement machine.

Thanx,
Jeff

If he can get his hands on an AUTO and its supporting software, and has the will to play with it (such as setting up the software, capturing his nights data & analysing it), he is likely to be quite capable of doing his own sleep study.

It can be done with certain brands of straight CPAP as well but and AUTO takes some of the effort out of doing a self study.

The advantage of doing it himself is the opportunity of avoiding the typical sleep study trauma: registering for a formal sleep study, waiting to get in, being wired up, usually having a poor nights sleep, waiting for the results (which to most of us a re gobbledygook anyway), seeing his sleep specialist for an interpretation etc: etc:.

The issues in doing one's own sleep study are that we need to be able to set the xPAP machine parameters ourselves as not too many sleep professionals are willing to help unless there are decent $s in it for them. It is not exactly simple, but with help it isn't hard either.

If he did want to do his own sleep study - he will get all the support anyone would ever need by coming here & asking questions & letting us know what data he is seeing.

The simplest form of self study would be with a machine such as the Resmed S8 Vantage where the night's summary data can be extracted from the machine's display each morning. The summary data is enough to do a self study.

But if he wanted to do a deeper analysis then as well as the S8 there are the Remstar AUTO or the PB420E. Each of these machines has a band of followers here who can assist with its use & the relevance of the data. The full nights data has lots of useful info and is particularly helpful to those just getting started or those more experienced who like to delve every now & then.

But, the bottom line is that the help available here is very good. There are some walking encyclopedias and some very astute observers among us.

Cheers

DSM