Where did all the help GO??

racprops wrote:I am still waiting for a book about Medicare and its costs and benefits; they send me a card saying they were out of stock.

I am self-employed and thus uninsured.

Rich

"Medicare and You 2013" is the book they mail out. There is a pdf here which you can read online or print out (no need to wait): http://www.medicare.gov/Pubs/pdf/10050.pdf

If you are unemployed and uninsured, you have no choice. You have to take Parts B and D when you are eligible, or pay penalties.

Thanks.

I have lived for 65 years with no health insurance, now I am FORCED to get it??

Rich

As per sleep:

Bad night: Tried sleeping back in bed with wedge…with only three hours of sleep I got an AHI of 36.84. 16.32 was Clear Airway with only .97 as Obstructive and 10.88 Hypopneas.

Switched to recliner and slept for one hour and had only one event a Hypopnea.

But after an hour of staying up, I tried to go back to sleep and things when bad again… Final total was 28.18 AHI.

I seem to need a more upright position than I get with a wedge in bed; just enough recline to keep my head in place.

I will have to look into blocking my recliner from allowing me to push it back to a fuller recline as I believe that is when my apneas run wild during the times I sleep in the chair. (I wake up laying nearer flat without my knowing how I got so far reclined, I seem to push back in my sleep.)

Rich

racprops wrote:As per sleep:

Bad night: Tried sleeping back in bed with wedge…with only three hours of sleep I got an AHI of 36.84. 16.32 was Clear Airway with only .97 as Obstructive and 10.88 Hypopneas.

Switched to recliner and slept for one hour and had only one event a Hypopnea.

But after an hour of staying up, I tried to go back to sleep and things when bad again… Final total was 28.18 AHI.

I seem to need a more upright position than I get with a wedge in bed; just enough recline to keep my head in place.

I will have to look into blocking my recliner from allowing me to push it back to a fuller recline as I believe that is when my apneas run wild during the times I sleep in the chair. (I wake up laying nearer flat without my knowing how I got so far reclined, I seem to push back in my sleep.)

Rich

Hi Rich,

I have seen this advertised on Amazon but have no personal experience with it. And the downside is if it doesn't work, you are out 100 plus dollars since refunds can't be provided for items like this considered to be personal health.

http://www.amazon.com/PATENTED-adjustab ... =bed+wedge

http://www.improvementscatalog.com/imp/ ... redirect=y

I got this for my husband when he was going through surgeries and treatment for melanoma. I worked out wonderfully.

racprops wrote:Thanks.

I have lived for 65 years with no health insurance, now I am FORCED to get it??

Rich

If you are ineligible for, or cannot afford, Medicare then you should be on Medicaid. Here are the eligibility provisions for the State of Arizona, for which you would likely in such event qualify:

http://www.azahcccs.gov/applicants/cate ... derly.aspx

Health Insurance for Individuals who are 65 or Older (and do not need a Nursing Home Level of Care)
Return to Categories

AHCCCS offers health insurance for individuals 65 and older. For those who qualify, there are no monthly premiums.

For more information, select one of the following:

Who Can Receive Services
Income Limits
Additional Information
Who Can Receive Services
The applicant may qualify for this program if the applicant:

Is an Arizona Resident
Is an United States citizen or a qualified immigrant (if the person is not a U.S. citizen or qualified immigrant, they may still be eligible for emergency services.)
Has a Social Security number or applies for one
To apply for a Social Security number visit the U.S. Social Security Administration
Make a copy of the form submitted as confirmation of applying for a Social Security Number
Applies for potential income that may be available, such as unemployment, pensions, and Social Security
Is under the income limit
Income Limits
This chart shows how much money the person can receive each month (gross monthly income) before taxes and other deductions are subtracted.

It is also important to know that if someone is working, AHCCCS may subtract an amount for work expenses.

Family Size Gross Monthly Income Limit
Applicant $958
Applicant and Spouse $1293

Regards, Nate

racprops wrote:
I will have to look into blocking my recliner from allowing me to push it back to a fuller recline as I believe that is when my apneas run wild during the times I sleep in the chair. (I wake up laying nearer flat without my knowing how I got so far reclined, I seem to push back in my sleep.)

Rich

Rich,

On the leftmost panel/column on this page:

http://www.lulusoso.com/products/Noisy- ... anism.html

you will find a resource from which you may be able to match your recliner brand/mechanism to a photograph or illustration of a similar construct. Since you are handy with tools, this may assist you in knowing where to temporarily place and tighten metal clamps, for example pipe clamps like these:

http://cfnewsads.thomasnet.com/images/l ... 451943.jpg

or these:

http://www.brass-copper-washers.com/ima ... -125-2.jpg

on the underside of the metal arch in the reclining mechanism, which would non-destructively limit the travel path and angle of recline of your chair, until such time as you are able to acclimate yourself back to sleeping in your bed.

Might be worth a look.

Regards, Nate

Like minds.

I found my Lazy Boy has a slot for the travel and I put a bolt with two large thick flat washers and a lock washer and nut in it.

It may need a little adjustment, but It did stop the chair from reclining all the way back.

So I will see how it works tonight.

Rich

NateS wrote:

racprops wrote:
I will have to look into blocking my recliner from allowing me to push it back to a fuller recline as I believe that is when my apneas run wild during the times I sleep in the chair. (I wake up laying nearer flat without my knowing how I got so far reclined, I seem to push back in my sleep.)

Rich

Rich,

On the leftmost panel/column on this page:

http://www.lulusoso.com/products/Noisy- ... anism.html

you will find a resource from which you may be able to match your recliner brand/mechanism to a photograph or illustration of a similar construct. Since you are handy with tools, this may assist you in knowing where to temporarily place and tighten metal clamps, for example pipe clamps like these:

http://cfnewsads.thomasnet.com/images/l ... 451943.jpg

or these:

http://www.brass-copper-washers.com/ima ... -125-2.jpg

on the underside of the metal arch in the reclining mechanism, which would non-destructively limit the travel path and angle of recline of your chair, until such time as you are able to acclimate yourself back to sleeping in your bed.

Might be worth a look.

Regards, Nate

49er wrote:
Hi Rich,

I have seen this advertised on Amazon but have no personal experience with it. And the downside is if it doesn't work, you are out 100 plus dollars since refunds can't be provided for items like this considered to be personal health.

http://www.amazon.com/PATENTED-adjustab ... =bed+wedge

This looks really nice. I don't need to sleep upright nearly as much as I used to before cpap treatment, but I still have nights with asthma issues, congestion from a cold, etc. And then I do need to be more upright. I have a backrest thing that helps, but it is more vertical, and I start okay, but tend to slip down as I sleep. It needs a seatbelt

Nothing beats a good recliner...

Rich

racprops wrote:Thanks.

I have lived for 65 years with no health insurance, now I am FORCED to get it??

Rich

Heck yea.... O'Bamma - care will MAKE you have insurance. You just finding this out? You'll be breaking the law if you don't have insurance (may have to put the cuffs on you... ). This country voted this crap in and I knew slowly but surely, folks here will start complaining about it. It's gonna get worse.

Sheriff

I have written my Doctor off as a lost.

He said to come back after 60 days. He doesn’t care and does not want to know.

In a sleep study, they start with a setting and watch the same kind of reports I have for 20 minutes..and then make a change and wait 20 minutes and make a change..all night long.

Then from the reactions of a 20 minute reading based the settings to set the machine.

These readings are taken under duress, you’re not at home in your own bed, but someplace else, you brand new to the use of a CPAP Machine and your WIRED with a ton of sensors, and in my case also taking a sleeping pill they say will not affect the readings.

So based on their results: @ 10/15cm I SHOULD have NO OAs, 1 CAs, and 31 Ns and be running O2 @ 89%.

That was what he prescribed.

BUT in his own report, I was better at 9/15cm as I had: NO OA, NO CA, and my Ns were 19 with O2 at 89%..

He did not even follow his own report…

Worst is once I got my own machine I have not seen anything like their results, my readings have been over 30 AHIs almost every night.

WHY?? Why did I not get the same results within days of getting the machine?? Why did I not respond as I did in the lab, I should be responding so much better than I did in the lab, but I am so very much worst, during the study it was a matter of minor degrees of Apneas, they got me down to NO apneas…not the high numbers I am seeing…

Why am I not getting these results as I am now sleeping in my own home and giving myself every advantage and sleeping in my recliner and I am now very used to my machine…

The sleep study showed me cured. Well treated anyway.

So if the sleep study and the Doctor’s prescription is holly: I should have seen something like what they did, NOT the I can’t breathe with the machine and nightmare readings and reports I have been getting from day one. It should only be a matter of a little fine tuning.

So it comes down to only a few possibilities: Their machine is much better that the one I bought and I should have one like theirs.

OR the sleep study is a sham and only a beginning and their best GUESS to what settings I need.

The good thing about a sleep study is they can report IF you have sleep apneas, what kind and if there is something else going wrong, IE other conductions. (If they look for them..that is: Hammers only look for and see nails)

AND a sleep study can show that treatment on a PAP machine CAN help, but in my treatment it did not give me a working treatment, I am not responding as I did in the sleep study.

So they make life changing decisions with only one nights study and with only 20 minutes at each setting in an bed not my own, sleeping in the worst position, flat on my back and hooked up to all those wires with a sleeping pill and my readings over a full night’s sleep at home on one set of settings, in my recliner with no sleeping pill and no wires and I am more used to my machine and these reports are so much less reliable??

AND WORST: My results are nowhere like theirs, I have massive centrals and Hypopneas.

So yes I cannot believe my Doctor nor his test results as what happened in the sleep lab is NOT happening at home with my own PAP Machine.

And you wonder why I am going nuts…

At this point all I can say is I BELIEVE I would be a lot worse off, sicker without the machine…so all I am doing is slowing down and keeping my finger in the dike.

And I hope to get better…

More:

On cars I have found I could work up to a good MPG setting by doing it one step at a time…and it will work UNTIL I turned it off and restarted and which point it would totally NOT work with the setting I had just worked up to..

That in these cases working a running car to a setting will ONLY work if you’re willing to start over every time and work up to that setting…

I think the sleep study has a bit of that kind of results, good only in the lab and only if you willing to take ½ of the night getting to those settings/results and that will NOT work as it did in the lab once you’re at home.

I am starting to think the medical profession is working a little bit of a scam, these are real problems, BUT perhaps not as dangerous as they are making it and they are calming it causes more problems than it does and that their treatment will cure too many things!

How many of us read and were told our weight problems might be caused by apneas and the treatment might help cure that?? (Now it is: Well you will have more energy and can eat less and workout more..thank to better sleep...)

I have been lead to believe my heart surgery might have been caused by sleep apneas. (Could be a enzine I am lacking and causing eggs and meat to not be digressed as correctly)

One note about scams, they make a lot of noise and a lot of unproven clams and promises and charge a lot of money for the fix. (I know about scams...) So it is charge as much as possible and get out of town fast...

The sleep Doctors and sleep centers are over charging, I can see a Heart Doctor cheaper, in face all my Doctors are cheaper that my sleep Doctor.

And $1200.00 to $2500.00 for ONE night study…

I fear they are throwing wood on a small fire here…do not look behind the curtain.

Rich



Rich

Sheriff Buford wrote:

racprops wrote:Thanks.

I have lived for 65 years with no health insurance, now I am FORCED to get it??

Rich

Heck yea.... O'Bamma - care will MAKE you have insurance. You just finding this out? You'll be breaking the law if you don't have insurance (may have to put the cuffs on you... ). This country voted this crap in and I knew slowly but surely, folks here will start complaining about it. It's gonna get worse.

Sheriff

Sheriff,

Obamacare has nothing to do with Medicare. While it probably would have been better to just roll everyone into Medicare, the health insurance industry of course opposed it, so Obamacare has nothing to do with racprop's situation. Nothing. Racprops states he is 65 years old.

Regards, Nate

racprops wrote: In a sleep study, they start with a setting and watch the same kind of reports I have for 20 minutes..and then make a change and wait 20 minutes and make a change..all night long.

Rich, I suggest that you are mistaken in assuming that the reports you get from your ASV machine are as sophisticated as the equipment and metrics read in a sleep study.

These readings are taken under duress, you’re not at home in your own bed, but someplace else, you brand new to the use of a CPAP Machine and your WIRED with a ton of sensors, and in my case also taking a sleeping pill they say will not affect the readings.

Rich, that pretty much describes the sleep studies of all the members here on cpaptalk who nevertheless report that ultimately they are getting good therapy from their machines.

Worst is once I got my own machine I have not seen anything like their results, my readings have been over 30 AHIs almost every night.

WHY?? Why did I not get the same results within days of getting the machine?? Why did I not respond as I did in the lab, I should be responding so much better than I did in the lab, but I am so very much worst, during the study it was a matter of minor degrees of Apneas, they got me down to NO apneas…not the high numbers I am seeing…

My results are nowhere like theirs, I have massive centrals and Hypopneas.

So yes I cannot believe my Doctor nor his test results as what happened in the sleep lab is NOT happening at home with my own PAP Machine.

I am starting to think the medical profession is working a little bit of a scam, these are real problems, BUT perhaps not as dangerous as they are making it and they are calming it causes more problems than it does and that their treatment will cure too many things!

How many of us read and were told our weight problems might be caused by apneas and the treatment might help cure that?? (Now it is: Well you will have more energy and can eat less and workout more..thank to better sleep...)

I have been lead to believe my heart surgery might have been caused by sleep apneas. (Could be a enzine I am lacking and causing eggs and meat to not be digressed as correctly)

One note about scams, they make a lot of noise and a lot of unproven clams and promises and charge a lot of money for the fix. (I know about scams...) So it is charge as much as possible and get out of town fast...

The sleep Doctors and sleep centers are over charging, I can see a Heart Doctor cheaper, in face all my Doctors are cheaper that my sleep Doctor.

And $1200.00 to $2500.00 for ONE night study…

I fear they are throwing wood on a small fire here…do not look behind the curtain.

Rich

Rich,

For the benefit of the members who have painstakingly given you advice here on cpaptalk, it might be helpful for you to go into your SleepyHead program, and copy and post the section called "Statistics" including the portions entitled:

"CPAP Statistics as of (current date)"

"Changes to Prescription Settings"


So that those who have come here and responded to your requests for advice can determine whether and for how long you have been following your doctor's advice as well as the good counsel you have received here on cpaptalk. As sort of a prelude to attempting to make any further suggestions. It would be helpful.

Respectfully, Nate

My words are not against anyone here.

I thank all you have helped and tried to help.

I am questioning the Doctors whom have jumped on this line of health care, special the ones whom are raking it in with these high prices.

I am questioning about how a clinic opens near a trucking company and soon most of the truck drivers are being forced to take sleep studies and paying these high costs out of their own pockets or stop driving. (Giving a bulk rate is NOT offered…)

It is reported that this treatment, CPAP has a 50% drop out rate or failure.

I wonder why. Could it be many are treated that don’t really need treatment?


Could the Doctors be rushing everyone within reach into treatment?

When I was shopping around about a sleep study I would ask if they would be testing and considering a Dental Appliance as a possible treatment of OA.

They said no. I was told If I wanted to look into that line of treatment go see a Dentist.

Sadly the Dentist are also very costly with their $3500.00+ appliances…(there are some of these kind of appliances for sale as snoring aides for under $100.00, and for some work very well, for apneas too I believe…)

After being told how complex ALL the setting are with my machine, and all the other efforts by my Doctor to keep me from see how simple it is to set up this machine is suppose to be learning there are ONLY 5/6 settings ..I find that very misleading...near lieing.


So I am questioning all

Rich