Hi DaveL,
"Today I found the clinician handbook for my S8 Elite II; They were afraid I might hurt myself, and kept it when the machine was delivered. "
Unless you have some kind of pre-existing condition, it's pretty hard to hurt yourself with a CPAP.
If the machine falls off the shelf and hits you in the head, I suppose that is an exception though.
CPAPs are limited to 20cm H2O pressure maximum. That will not even blow up a kid's toy balloon.
However: Inside your head is a bit delicate, you can make yourself real uncomfortable. You might think your going to blow your brains out or swallow a lot of air, but the pressure to do any real harm just isn't available.
First thing I am seeing though:
You need to take a baseball bat to your doc & DME.
You are going to have a lot more problems with the S8 Elite II since it is older equipment that has been superceded by the S9 series.
They likely issued you this so they could charge insurance full/inflated price and pocket $300 difference.
Suffice to say that on your current hardware you are flying blind.
If I were you I'd throw a bitch and insist they issue you an *S9 Autoset* No less. If they balk or give you a bunch of crap then change doctors & DME too. They are more interested in siphoning money from the system then taking care of your problems.
Once you get going with an S9 Autoset you can start collecting data every night, run SleepyHead software against the data and actually *SEE* what problems you are running into without having to spend 6 months bouncing through sleep studies.
We have a lot of Canadians in this group that can help you pull the right strings to get you what equipment you need.
They have been there and done that.
That way you wont have to call up your Biker buddies and get in trouble when they bust up these boneheads.
What say?