So I'm raising this thread from 3 months dead to finally say, "hurrah," I now have a machine and a mask.
Unfortunately, it's a Philips (boo) Auto BiPap (boooooo).
Cleveland Clinic finally gave me a consult with an actual sleep MD, but it was virtual / Zoom meeting. Why they couldn't provide a virtual appointment back in April or March
but how frustrating to have to wait months just for this.
The sleep MD
claimed she was going to read through both of my tests and re-interpret and then either move ahead with the original recommendation, or schedule yet another lab PSG test if she felt an ASV was appropriate. She flat out said that she
could not prescribe an ASV without first seeing lab results showing it was correct. After having to pester the MD after a weekend (appointment was Thursday, she was supposed to look at my data on Friday and apparently didn't or at least never replied as she said she would), she finally got back to me on Monday or Tuesday... without making any changes and just following what the previous interpretation had said.
So I was prescribed a BiPap, with
fixed pressures (21i/17e), and even though I asked for a ResMed unit, apparently they had none in stock at the time so I wound up with a Philips.
I used it for the first time last night and only got about 5 hours on the unit. Woke up with my mouth a complete desert around 5:30AM, and my wife woke up around the same time, so I shut down the unit out of courtesy to her. She was apparently having nearly as hard of a time trying to sleep with the stupid thing blowing away next to me as I was. It sounds like a damn vacuum cleaner with the regular high and low pressure changes. I had a
really hard time falling asleep, even though I was pretty tired when I hooked up around midnight. The ramp function (starting at 4cm and ramping to my set of 21/17 over 30 minutes) didn't even help much. I can adjust the ramp time to 45min but that's the max.
I'm completely at a loss as to why they wouldn't prescribe me for "Auto" as well - the machine is capable of "auto" but it is hard-set for 21/17. (I know how to get in there and change it, but it also has a cellular modem and I assume that will get monitored by insurance and I might get yelled at for playing in the settings...)
My first night showed an AHI (retrieved with DreamMapper) of 2.6, with 7 "clear airway apneas", 1 obstructive, and 5 hypopneas (over 5h 8m of activity). I then went back to sleep for another ~3-4 hours without the machine.
Irony - the device was delivered to me along with a mask by a technician from the DME provider. When I was discussing my situation with her, I mentioned that I had a lot of central apneas during the home test, and that "internet people" suggested a BiPap wasn't the correct device. She then finished my thought and said "yeah, that usually requires an ASV!"
So now I have something, it's difficult for me to use and dries out my mouth... but I do feel like it helped. At least, I feel less crappy today than I usually do, and I haven't been feeling the need to fall asleep in my recliner while watching TV. Gonna try to stick to it and I hope that over time the data will give me more ammo to take to the sleep MD during a follow-up (which I have to schedule in the next ~3 months to keep insurance happy, I guess.)
Is there any way to change the brightness on the stupid Dreamstation? I thought it had a light sensor on it, but when I touch the knob or the ramp button at night, the screen comes on and lights up half my damn room it's so bright. (
way brighter than e.g. a modern iPhone would be with the auto brightness enabled there)