I apologize for never having answered this post, originally but it was the first time with Sleep Apnea forums and i found another one and never could figure out which one this one was. I have since discovered this one again and then just noticed it has quite a few Canadians in it, whilst the other one didn't.
I've long since passed this post as this was done last December, although I had a lot of problem getting going with my machines for my Sleep Doctor seriously messed up on my initial 2 sleep tests.
Secondly, up until recently I had a lot of problems with condensation causing a blocked nose 90 minutes into my sleep. I was getting advice from somewhere else but wasn't overly impressed with what I was being told, such as "whats the problem, breathe through your mouth.........??!!"
Anyhow I finally figured it out about 4 nights ago. I had purchased a brand new S9 AutoSet from Kijij for $650 on May 28th but I never though to change the climate control settings as they were fine for our weather at the end of May but I suppose it changed within a matter of days and i never made the connection to it being the settings.......being new to CPAP so I was looking everywhere else for the answer, until i finally turned it right off and now I can sleep right through the night without any problems, as long as I get to bed early enough and don't leave it too late.
I was advised by a group of Americans that the AutoSet was the only way to go. Now that hat I own one, I can see that the ELITE is perfectly fine I believe for most people.
So far, as one other poster mentioned, I too did not like the feel of the changing pressure and am at present for now using it as a CPAP machine, not Auto until i master for at least 2 weeks, the ability to sleep all the way through the night without the feeling of suffocation. I experienced that when my nose became clogged.
Once I get there, I will then start adjusting my pressure settings, one point at a time, slowly to get where I should be.
By this i mean, at 13.
For some reason my doctor who said my prescription was 13, well when I was given the Escape and used it for a few months, it was only when I got the Auto Set I discovered that the DME had set it at 10 and not 13.
So I just want to get used to what i was at with the Escape and then I will slowly make the transition to 13 and Auto from CPAP
n Ontario, not all CPAP prescriptions and titrations allow you to get an APAP (such as an S9 Autoset) through the ADP. IIRC, for that you need a minimum pressure of 10 and an increase of at least 4 in a different stage or position. I don't meet those requirements, and so my ADP-partially-covered machine is a PRS1 450. Independently of that, my DME still allowed me to buy myself an APAP (my PRS1 560); the province simply didn't cover any of the costs.
Hi I don't clearly understand the above though? I was told I had Severe Sleep Apnea with a prescription of 13.
On my first sleep study, the hospital never came in once to wake my up and I slept all night on my back, as i normally do so that test was considered inconclusive so he sent me to another sleep diagnosis centre but due to problems, I had only just picked up my machine and had not yet used it so I wasn't told to bring it to the send sleep study. I thought we came alone. I was never told anything at all in hindsight.
Being a mouth breather, the sleep study place had only FF masks. I no longer use them because I open my mouth and wake up with a cotton barton feeling.
So I switched to a nasal mask and it was perfect. No leaking, etc but i had the condensation problem although that as not related to the style of mask.
I mention that for knowing the above, I had someone tell me that I should be using a FF mask and learn to live with the cotton batten feeling.
Its beyond me why I would do that when the nasal mask is perfect, but its one reason why I looked around for a different forum to get information from.
So they tried about 15 different FF masks on me but each one lakes terribly. She must have come into the room and wakened me about 12 x on that second sleep study because of the leakage. She kept trying to tighten it down with mask until i was getting bad headaches from it but there just wasn't any other make to work with.
Finally she came in and told me they had to have at least an hour for me on my side, which i never sleep on but I did and then the leakage was so bad and was shooting into my eye that i am not really sure I did sleep keep but thought i just lay there quietly for she was getting rather frustrated and was pleading with me to get more sleep, that she needed at least one more hour or it would be inconclusive.......but I couldn't help it with masks that didn't fit, or were taped so tight i had a headache or they were shooting air into my eye.
Suffice it to say, it was not a good sleep that night and i had to go home to sleep another 3.5 hours that day to make up for the 8 I didn't get the night before.
Somehow from this he decided I was a 12.
The irony was that my husband was also being tested at the same time. He slept like a baby that night and never woke up.
I don't know what happened but they considered his test inconclusive and although he had border line SA with a pressure of 8 he told my husband 2 x that he just needed to lose some weight and didn't really need a machine.
He didn't even want him to get one but the hubby insisted that he should have it if he has Sleep Apnea.
When we went to the DME a week later to pick it up for the second time it turned out he had not signed it. The first sleep test he never wrote a number for him and on this one he didn't sign it.
For whatever reason, he didn't seem to want my husband to want one although he is terribly overweight right now and snores....but the DME just figured he had overlooked signing it and gave him one.
Up until now he has fought using it because he keeps telling me that the doctor told him he doesn't have it /sighs
(
I have arranged one night this week to set my auto set at his number and try him on it for just the one night and from that we will see if he really does have it or not )
So Why AM I explaining all this to you?
Besides giving you an understanding of what a joke the whole sleep study process was for he and I here in Toronto, I quoted someone above that says what one must have to get an AutoSet.
SO IF i was given a 13 if i read this properly, in order to get 4 levels above 10, Id have to at least have a 14 or rather a 10 so that 4 levels above 10 would be 14 in different sleeping positions if i read that correctly?
So if they did not do my tests properly, he can't possibly really know what the correct pressure was and therefore, even 13 might be a guess?
You know what, it might almost be to difficult to know WHAT this doctor was thinking.
So better, does anyone know, in Ontario how often OHIP will pay for sleep studies?
Id like to know the soonest we could repeat them but with a better doctor?
For those unable to get OHIP to pay for your AutoSet, I guess you do know that if you want one badly enough that you can buy them on Kijiji usually new for $650?
I just got one that comes with the better hose, and came with a Swift Wisp Nasal Mask, I believe it was called all new?
They usually have the Elite for $450
But just last week I saw a lightly used one, an AutoSet for only $350
I'm not sure they are AS great as some people believe. By this, what I mean is that yes, I do agree and wish that people were not given the S9 Escape for I think everyone should be able to check their Data but do I think $650 is worth it JUST to read your data?
That I am not sure of............
I guess what I am trying to say is that i believed people that essentially stressed to me that without an S9 i was wasting my time. I don't believe that today. I might not have been using my time to its fullest on it but i don't believe it was a complete waste of time either.
If people are happy with their S9 AutoSets I think we end up stressing them more making them feel that their S0 Escape is useless when if set to the right settings, it is certainly miles ahead of not using anything at all and I think many people in their 50s and up are either retired, not wealthy, perhaps poor or on disability, welfare, etc and just can't easily spend that $650.
To those people, I just want to say that my life has not changed dramatically at all with the S9 and if all you can afford is the ESCAPE, then enjoy and just get a sleep test every so often so they can tell how you are doing pressure wise, etc.... at least in my humble opinion, that is what I would say.......