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New Member. This board has already made my life better!
#1
New Member. This board has already made my life better!
I'm here because the sleep clinic ticked me off and I don't even want to go back there. At first they delayed the forwarding of the quote to my insurance for over three months, then trying to sell me a Respironics Dreamstation for over $2200, which my insurance told me was over the accepted limit. When I did some research, I found the same machine for under $1000 online (This is Canada, probably way cheaper in the US). My insurance happily paid 80% but now I'm pretty much on my own. I already made the first mistake by ignorantly ordering a The Dreamstation Pro instead of the Auto, so now I'm stuck with fixed pressure (Once I realized it I found the price difference would have been minor but they won't let me exchange it, since I "opened the box"), however, I'm determined to make it work. I'm so thrilled that I've learned here that I can go into the Provider settings myself, check my own data and be in control of this therapy. I feel so empowered, ha ha. Thank you already and I'll be back with questions, I'm sure. Smile
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#2
RE: New Member. This board has already made my life better!
Hi Russatrice,
WELCOME! to the forum.!
It's great to hear that you want to learn and understand your machine and sleep apnea. Keep up the good work, you have a great attitude.
Hang in there for more responses to your post, and I wish you good luck with your CPAP therapy.
trish6hundred
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#3
RE: New Member. This board has already made my life better!
Welcome! Don't be too hard on the price that the DME charges. That should include about 5 years of support, office visits, instant warranty replacements, trying different masks etc. All of that costs and they need to pay the bills and still turn a profit. I am pretty happy with the service that I have gotten from my DME and the Respiratory Therapist here in Vancouver. A lot of people don't frequent forums like this and having that support can be valuable.

The DME situation in the US seems much worse, though perhaps it is in SK too.

As for your machine choice, at least you got a data capable one. It has an Auto-trial mode that is basically 30 day sessions of APAP. You can use that to find the pressure that works best for you. You may find that you do better on CPAP. While the auto adjusting pressure sounds like a great feature, it IS changing while you are sleeping and this can disturb some people's sleep.
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#4
RE: New Member. This board has already made my life better!
Welcome. Don't knock the fixed-pressure machines. I've been using one for over two years, and it's all I need. Some patients just don't need the variable pressure models. Good luck.
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#5
RE: New Member. This board has already made my life better!
Hi, all. Thanks so much for the good wishes.

Chill, I understand that having the support of a good sleep clinic would be great but this one actually wanted to sell me a monthly package of sorts that would have included what you have listed off, but at an extra price. Then there is the provincial sleep clinic where I can go but haven't, as of yet.
Can you please tell me more about how to use the auto trial mode? I would like to find the best pressure, I think 7 is a bit low for me as I again wake up tired more often since I switched to this machine.

Hi Jim, I think I'll be ok with the fixed pressure. I find that I never wake up feeling that I can't breathe, as I did every now and then with the Auto function (the machine I had from the sleep clinic). Thanks for the encouragement, glad to hear it works well for others.
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#6
RE: New Member. This board has already made my life better!

Actually have better results with CPAP, the auto was very close but less variance in pressure suited me. Individual settings for all and the results are in the Sleepyhead software to fine tune your therapy.
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#7
RE: New Member. This board has already made my life better!
Wow Russatrice! It sounds like your DME has been studying the ones further south. Well, at least you know to avoid them.

All that I know about AutoTrial mode is in the Clinicians Manual for your machine, which I assume you have if you are setting it up yourself. It is not very detailed. If you don't have it, see the link at the top of the page. My recollection is that it is a mode you can set that starts a 30 days auto-titration. When it is finished it returns you to CPAP with a calculated set pressure based on the past 30 days.
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#8
RE: New Member. This board has already made my life better!
Hello Russatrice. Welcome to the forum.

Chill is right. You need to download the CPAP Clinician Setup Manual for your DreamStation Pro and study it if you haven't done so already. Downloading SleepyHead would also be a good idea. It will help you better understand how your therapy is progressing.

I use a DreamStation Pro as well. After I became more comfortable with the idea of changing the settings on my machine, I tried both AutoTrial and CPAP-Check. They both arrived at the same pressure for me. The clinician setup manual gives an overview of both functions and explains how to set them up.

If you decide to use Auto Trial, I would suggest using a setting of 6cm to 12cm. When it settles on a 90% pressure you can turn Auto Trial off and set your CPAP pressure to the 90% pressure to see how it goes.

CPAP-Check adjusts your treatment pressure over time to meet your pressure needs. It evaluates your obstructive respiratory disturbance index every 30 hours and adjusts the treatment pressure +- 1cm, as needed. The total range of treatment over time is +- 3cm of the CPAP-Check pressure setting. If you decide to use CPAP-Check instead of AutoTrial, just use your prescribed pressure as the pressure setting in the CPAP-Check setup.

Sleep well,
Mitch.







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#9
RE: New Member. This board has already made my life better!
Thanks, so much for the input, this is really helpful. I've found the Auto-Trial and CPAP-Check in the manual. Haven't gone into the settings yet. These are great features that make me feel pretty good about this machine.
One question: Can the Auto-Trial be repeated every so often? I'm thinking it would be beneficial to have it repeated if there are changes in location or weight for example.
The other thing that goes through my head is: If the machine is capable of functioning on Auto for some time, it means it is capable period.... Hmmm.
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#10
RE: New Member. This board has already made my life better!
I believe when using A Trial, you have up to 30 days use. You can choose less than 30 days, example...7 days. This way you are able to use the A Trial a few times.
OpalRose
Apnea Board Administrator
www.apneaboard.com

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