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Help with Respironics REMstar Plus Sys 1
#1
Help with Respironics REMstar Plus Sys 1
Newly diagnosed and this was the machine the company handed me. No choices.

Some questions to the pros please:
1) Is this any good or am I better off with something else? I've worn it 3 nights now and I like the ramp up feature, but don't know enough to know if there is something better out there.

2) I downloaded SleepHead but the program can't find any data on the SD card. I am selecting the SD root. Heck, I've selected them all but no luck.
The card does have 5 1kb files ending in 000-005 but they look encrypted.

Any advice is deeply appreciated.

Aloha from Hawaii.

MrCourtney
Aloha,
MrCourtney
Honolulu, HI
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#2
RE: Help with Respironics REMstar Plus Sys 1
Welcome to the board ... Unfortunately PR System One Plus is not data capable machine, the machine and SD card does not capture any efficacy data (AHI, leak, etc ) just how many hours using the machine
Efficacy data can help your doctor to determine how the therapy is working and make any adjustment

Avoid any PRS1 machine with Plus and SE in the name
Auto (560/550) and Pro (460/450) are data capable machines
Models numbers below 460/450 are not data capable machines

460/560 ... 60 series machines with heated hose option

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#3
RE: Help with Respironics REMstar Plus Sys 1
(07-01-2013, 01:40 AM)zonk Wrote: Welcome to the board ... Unfortunately PR System One Plus is not data capable machine, the machine and SD card does not capture any efficacy data (AHI, leak, etc ) just how many hours using the machine
Efficacy data can help your doctor to determine how the therapy is working and make any adjustment

Avoid any PRS1 machine with Plus and SE in the name
Auto (560/550) and Pro (460/450) are data capable machines
Models numbers below 460/450 are not data capable machines

460/560 ... 60 series machines with heated hose option

Zonk -

Thanks for answering me at what must be an ungodly hour where you are.
I'm one of those that heavily participates in my own medical care. I like to know what, why and what are we doing about it. My primary doc actually likes that.
So, I want to collect data, read graphs, and chart my path through this new chapter in my life.
I don't need a humidifier and the machine is pushing 11 which is fine with the ramp up feature.
Given my obsession with a data collecting machine, any specific recommendations - or those above is what I should be looking at?

Thanks again.
Aloha,
MrCourtney
Honolulu, HI
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#4
RE: Help with Respironics REMstar Plus Sys 1
This might help, Archangle:Machine Choices
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...ne_Choices

ResMed S9 and PR System One are the two most popular machines
Avoid any ResMed machine with Escape or Escape Auto in the name
S9 AutoSet and S9 Elite are data capable machines

btw, its Monday 5.15 pm ... just preparing dinner
Sleep-well
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#5
RE: Help with Respironics REMstar Plus Sys 1
(07-01-2013, 02:16 AM)zonk Wrote: btw, its Monday 5.15 pm ... just preparing dinner
Sleep-well

That must put you somewhere in the western half of Mars.
ThanksShy
Aloha,
MrCourtney
Honolulu, HI
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#6
RE: Help with Respironics REMstar Plus Sys 1
Hi courtney123,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
What zonk said. It's good that you want to participate in your healthcare.
Best of luck to you with your CPAP therapy and hang in there for more responses to your post.
trish6hundred
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#7
RE: Help with Respironics REMstar Plus Sys 1
(07-01-2013, 10:13 AM)trish6hundred Wrote: Hi courtney123,
WELCOME! to the forum.!

Thank you!
Aloha,
MrCourtney
Honolulu, HI
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#8
RE: Help with Respironics REMstar Plus Sys 1
Here's some thoughts I had regarding your post. You can assess whether they have relevance to you.

Like you, I'm newly diagnosed with severe sleep apnea. Been using a Respironics Auto Bipap DS760TS for a month. From the start I was warned by a friend: The insurance companies will try to get you involved in leases with DME companies and you'll lose control and pay for the machine several times over in the bargain. IMHO it's crazy to let others manage your risk if you can educate yourself and manage your own risk with the guidance of your physicians. This forum can help you do that.

Your doctors may know a lot about doctoring, but you know a lot about you. For example, I've found I cannot sleep on my back -- when I do, my AHI scores are high (bad), despite pressures at the limit of the Bipap. The sleep study never figured this out. (I was sleeping on my side when they successfully titrated me.) It would take months and very good communication with your physician to figure it out using the "traditional" approach. I figured it out in one night when my AHI score went from 3 to 15 when I slept on my back.

My dentist originally suggested a sleep study after asking me some questions "out of the blue". I went along figuring "let's check this out". The sleep study result was, "severe sleep apnea". A second sleep study titrated my pressures. My pressures were very high (20/25) and required a Bipap. I was shocked by the diagnosis. I thought my bad sleep was related to old age and that I had only to "suck it up". (I'm 63 and not clinically obese).

So because a dentist had sent me to the sleep study, I needed a physician to help me with medical things, so, at the advice of a respiratory therapist friend, I engaged a pulmonologist. He checked me out, and agreed to prescribe a more "high-end" machine with data recording capability (that I selected) after asking me a few questions about its features and confirming that I met minimums.

My dentist prescribed a dental appliance which lowered my scores even more by holding my jaw position forward (which tends to open the airway).

Ordered the machine flat-out over the internet for a competitive price. (I'm sure for a price well below what a full-service DME would charge my insurance company). Then submitted the bill to the insurance company for payment. Who knows how much they will pay. This is just too important to screw around with trying to save a few bucks at the expense of humoring a DME company. My Bipap arrived in a box, I set it up myself, and began to use it.

From an apnea forum, I got a copy of the clinical manual for my machine so that I could set pressures if I wanted to.

The machine gives me an AHI score every morning. I've reduced my score from 57 to an average of 0.8 despite reducing pressures found for my sleep study, and I allow the auto function to boost pressures if on-the-fly needs dictate. I got Sleepyhead software to graph and keep track of the data.

When I have questions, my family doctor, dentist, my pulmonologist are happy to help.

With a machine that's not data capable, I'm constrained to recurring sleep studies and months between corrections. With a data capable machine, every night is a mini sleep study. I don't wait until quarterly doctor visits to assess my progress and correct. I do that every day. My doctors are all "on-board", and I feel like I'm 10 years younger now. I can now sleep 8 hours at a time rather than 3 or 4, and I'm not exhausted an hour after waking up.

Had a few problems with dry mouth (I'm a mouth breather), and my dentist suggested Xylimelts that brought relief.

To me the problem is one of integrating knowledge (from doctors, others, your experience) and data to optimize outcomes. Others cannot do this for you well without your participation.

Just an opinion. Do with it what you will. Good Luck.
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#9
RE: Help with Respironics REMstar Plus Sys 1
First, let's figure out for sure which machine you have. Take out the water tank if you have one.

Look on the bottom of the machine for a label with something like "REF 260P" and tell us what it says.

You may have more choice than you think. If it's with insurance, you usually have a choice of multiple "in network" DMEs. (Durable Medical Equipment) providers (CPAP salesmen.) If you don't like one, you can go to another. The first few months are usually rental, so you have some leverage in terms of taking it back.

Many people have succeeded in their battle with their DME and insurance.
Get the free OSCAR CPAP software here.
Useful links.
Click here for information on the main alternative to CPAP.
If it's midnight and a DME tells you it's dark outside, go and check it yourself.
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#10
RE: Help with Respironics REMstar Plus Sys 1
Wow, great post - thank you. We are kindred spirits on this subject.
I went back to the respiratory company Monday and complained (nicely) that I was given no options, just what they picked out of the box for me.
Ten minutes later I walked out the door with a new RemStar Auto A-Flex. Went home and programmed it myself with the prescribed pressure and what I wanted for options turned on.
My primary doc sent me to a pulmonologist that I saw last week. He was surprised I hadn't received my original unit yet, so I go back in about 3 weeks after some time on the replacement unit.

Here's the kicker - what would he have been able to do with the data from the first unit? "Good boy, you used it every night." That's all it logged.
Now with the SleepyHead data he and I have a fighting chance to adjust my therapy into something meaningful.
Why they would even sell that junk no data-capable machine is beyond reason.

Live throws us an occasional curve ball. The best thing we can do is swing like hell at it and keep moving on.
Thanks for taking the time.
Aloha,
MrCourtney
Honolulu, HI
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