Need new doctor and decent dme, help please

[Elgeeone]

Hi, Been on pap since 2004. I have a neuromuscular disease that affects peripheral nerves including phrenic nerve. I mostly have hypopneas and OSA with about one central a night. I’d love to read and provide card data but have neither card nor reader. 

I live in Lakeland, FL. Halfway between Tampa and Orlando but Tampa is slightly easier. 

I am due a replacement of my S9 Vpap S. I asked my now fired FL pulmonologist to write a script for a replacement Aircurve VAuto machine. He went ape....  He refused to accept that Medicare has been paying for my apnea needs since 2004 and I failed Cpap due to my illness. I was eligible last April. He keeps saying I have to start over as a new Cpap patient, fail it and hope that Medicare will cover a bilevel. The dme fell off their chairs laughing as Medicare has paid for 2 bilevels so far already. They refused the doctor’s orders. 

I went back to my SC awesome Pulmonologist who wrote the script for my 99 year need of pap for the Aircurve vauto. Then the dme I had used up there refused to honor it. So, spent over 2k to go see good doctor and get new machine and failed. 

I was told by the fired doc’s resp tech to just buy one myself. I should have as I spent more than buying online. 

I need a real pulmonologist/sleep specialist who listens to the patient and not his own personal Lincare rep who decided I couldn’t get a new machine. 

I am fighting my S9 after the dme pulled its card and kept it which apparently reset it back to Cpap 4. Took me 3 nights with a cold to realize the issue. Got it back to the last bilevel settings but don’t know what they were and unable to get them from dme or doc. I decided to go back to my S8 Auto 25. The great doctor in SC wanted to start at 17/7 and I think a support of 6? I reset that machine to those settings as it was at 20/6 and blowing my masks off. Any suggestions while I desperately try to get a vauto?

To make things worse? My Veteran husband walked into the Tampa VA, they looked at his old system one bipap and handed him the PR dreamstation bipap. Not sure if it’s auto but it was upsetting. Happy for him, confused for me. 

Any suggestions welcome. I will try and get SC dr to send me a script and buy one from one of the listed suppliers while I fight to get what I pay insurance for. 

Thanks

[Sleepster]

I am fighting my S9 after the dme pulled its card and kept it which apparently reset it back to Cpap 4. Took me 3 nights with a cold to realize the issue. Got it back to the last bilevel settings but don’t know what they were and unable to get them from dme or doc. I decided to go back to my S8 Auto 25.

All of these problems can be fixed without too much trouble. Get the clinician's manual for the S8 and the S9. Read the settings on your S8 and dial in the matching settings on your S9.

Buy a new SD card and put it in your machine. It will automatically download all the most recent data. Use OSCAR to see graphs and post them here. We'll be able to have a really good idea of what's going on. If you need help get it from a family member, neighbor, or friend. A youngster could get it all up and running for you in about an hour.

[Elgeeone]

My S8 was on vauto from 4-20. My S9 was on 15/7 after stupid dr put me at 19/8 because my ahi was just a little high at 40 per night. He just kept saying we need to increase your pressure! I dropped it down to 15/7 after remembering what I learned here about too high pressure causes more events. It lowered them to about 20 So I took it down to 13/6 which brought me down to 10-15 events nightly. The whole reason my good dr ordered 17/7 for the ordered vauto was to then adjust my settings to bring me back to an ahi of 1. The fired doc believes that anything less than 10 events per hour is perfect. My s9 card is enroute to me and my neighbor has a reader so I will take care of getting the settings to as near as perfect as possible, hopefully with help here. Thank you.

[Sleepster]

To be honest, the only difference I notice between my S9 VPAP Auto and my AirCurve 10 VAuto is that the A10 is a bit quieter. There are other differences, but nothing significant that I know of. You can keep using your S9 since you have the S8 as a back up.

[Elgeeone]

Thanks for the suggestions. My only concern is the over 17000 hours on the s9 and 15500 on the S8. Something is going to give.