[Equipment] Finally diagnosed with severe sleep apnea. I need advise on what equipment to get.

[xProtify]

Hello, I was finally just diagnosed with severe sleep apnea after several years of worsening sleep issues. It took two sleep studies with little help from my terrible insurance, but I've finally received the recommendation that I've been working towards. Thing is, my DME recommended a kit which would cost me $2,400 out of pocket because my insurance deductible is $5,200/yr.

I'm hoping that I can get some advise on what equipment I should be looking to pick up. My study recommendations list says that I should get a bipap tuned to 22/18 with a nasal mask and a heated humidifier. Being the idiot that I am, I left me actual print out at work so I won't have that until tomorrow, but if I remember correctly, I had around 178 central apneas with an AHI of 198. During the second test, they were able to get that down to 3.4 based on the set up that I just listed.

Do you have any recommendations for cheap but viable equipment that I should pick up? I'm currently looking at a gently used Respironics System One 660P with the humidifier attachment, but I haven't started looking at masks yet. I'm also seeing a MASSIVE difference in price between units, but I have no idea why. Any advice or links to review would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

[SarcasticDave94]

Welcome to the Apnea Board,

First things first, do not get anything until you read our replies. Do not give the DME any bank, credit or debit card numbers. They don't need it to service you. They do need doctor info, script, and insurance, but again not your bank account etc. They may or may not be shady but let's not tempt them OK.

What did this kit contain from the DME? Whatever, it's too crazy expensive and probably has an ozone cleaner that you don't need. It'll probably include the wrong PAP machine, not even talking about not the best brand. Pump the brakes and read on friend.

Take note you have a choice in brand of PAP and mask. Exercise that right. Also HIPAA empowers you to get the detailed sleep study and titration reports and the script. Get all them for your personal file. AND post them redacted here.

This is just very preliminary without that specific study report. ResMed is the best PAP brand out there for most users. You will want OSCAR to see your therapy for yourself. It's free and created by members here from another similar program. Again it's free and necessary to PAP therapy success.

Now you mention lots of Central Apnea. You may need a top level Apnea machine called the ASV. IF this plays that way, you will need the ResMed AirCurve 10 ASV or a similar ResMed 9 series ASV to save a bit of money. But let's not go that deep into that direction yet. Maybe a ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet may work, but using high pressure may be less comfortable with this. So maybe you need BPAP if CA isn't as big a problem as your first post makes it seem. There's a ResMed AirCurve 10 VAuto as the best non-specialized bilevel.

So you see there's quite a few directions and unfortunately not all are going to be right. So we'll wait for your data at the office.

Till then take a breather and visit our Apnea Board virtual coffee machine.

[SarcasticDave94]

PS a supplier list is on the top banner. One reasonable cost option may be Supplier #2 Second Wind. Take a look while you sip your virtual coffee.

[xProtify]

Thank you very much for all of the information. I will be contacting them first thing in the morning to receive the full readings. As for the DME, after I told them that I have nowhere near that amount of money for the kit (unsure of what was included), they quickly told me that they would cancel the order and hung up. It took me over 10 days to get ahold of them in the first place so I'm not sure how that'll work now. I'd really like to avoid them if at all possible based on their reaction to my lack of funds and insurance.

I've been trying to read into the different brands of PAP, but haven't even delved into the masks yet. I did see the sticky about OSCAR so I was on second wind trying to match models to confirmed working units on the Wiki. There's obviously way more that I need to know though so I'll put that on a temporary hold until I come back with my results.

As for the numbers that I gave, I probably shouldn't have spoken without looking at the breakdown I was given. I don't exactly remember if those were central or obstructive, but I will get the results and post them for review.

Thank you for all of the info. I'll be back tomorrow with some documents.

[JJJ]

PS a supplier list is on the top banner. One reasonable cost option may be Supplier #2 Second Wind. Take a look while you sip your virtual coffee.

As SD said, since you're probably going to pay out of pocket, look at all the suppliers in our list, but Supplier #2 is where I'm pretty sure you're going to end up.

Also, be sure to get a copy of everything from your doc, especially the prescription. Most suppliers, even online suppliers, won't fill an order without the prescription. Scan it to a PDF so you can send it to people easily, or better yet, ask the doc's staff to send it to you as a PDF. Don't worry about dates on the prescription - I'm still using mine from ten years ago.

One more thing - the machines need some tweaking once you get one and start out with it, but the devil is in the mask. There are tons of masks on the market, and for good reason. I'm currently in mask #12, and lots of people try even more before finding one that they like.

And one final note - the wisdom that you will hear on Apnea Board is that Resmed is better than Respironics. I have both machines, and I far prefer and get better results with my Respironics than my Resmed. Take machine brand recommendations with a grain of salt.

[staceyburke]

If you did NOT have a lot of central apnea the best “bilevel “ is a ResMed s10 aircurve VAUTO. There is a huge line of different pap machines and they do different things for different types of sleep problems. Please don’t get a Phillips dreamstation, we get so many people who can not get decent therapy with it and end up buying a ResMed out of pocket. 

You mentioned used - there is a supplier list at the top of this site. We can’t name suppliers by name but Supplier #2 sells both new, new open box and used machines. I and my son purchased a ResMed VAUTO from Supplier #2. Both are great machines mine had less tha one month and his less than one week. Cost was 799 each. They came with hoses and humidifier. Only thing you need will be a mask.

[Coffee Man]

A lot of suppliers online offer mask insurance where you can return a mask within 30 days if that does not work. So, keep that in mind because sometimes it takes a while to find the right mask.