Welcome to the forum Triggersbroom.
And I also bid you a sad welcome to the CPAP&Insomina Club. (I seem to be the honorary president of that club.)
(10-23-2016, 04:24 PM)Triggersbroom Wrote: For the apnea I had 59 events per hour for a average of 20 seconds a time while sleeping on my back, and 5 when on my side. Sleeping on my side isn't easy as I have chronic shoulder issues. The mouth guard didn't work that well for the apnea, but I've used it in the past to mainly to help with the snoring.
Yikes. With the shoulder issues you're much better off getting a CPAP/APAP and sleeping in a position that doesn't create other issues. Once your PAP therapy is optimized you'll be able to sleep on your back and have few or no events.
Quote:To help with the insomnia he told me I need to learn and use relaxation techniques, something I have already started on, but don't think will be that easy after so many years of interrupted sleep.
Yes, getting the insomnia under control is hard. But it is also important because you won't reap the full benefit of CPAP until the insomnia is also under control.
You might want to find a book called, "Sound Sleep, Sound Mind" by Dr. Barry Krakow. It's a well written self-help guide for dealing with insomnia with a lot of suggestions of things to try. It also includes a lot of information about the connections between insomnia and undiagnosed OSA, along with a nice bit of information about CPAP therapy and how it works.
Quote:At the end of the trial I'll have to purchase a machine and wondered if anyone had any thoughts on the one I'm using, Phillips REMstar Auto A-Flex.
Thank you for reading my story.
We need a bit more information since Philips Respironics has called almost all of their machines REMstar for the last 20 years.
Is your machine a PR System One Auto with A-Flex? Or is your machine a PR DreamStation Auto with A-Flex?
The DreamStation is the newest line of PAP machines made by Philips Respironics. They are white and have a lighted LCD on the front of the machine.
The System One is the machine the DreamStation replaced, but there are still quite a few of them on the market. It is dark grey and has a black and white LCD on the top of the blower unit.
Both machines are high quality machines that record full efficacy data. Both machines have SD cards and write the data directly to the SD card. The SleepyHead software that is talked about around here can be used to read the data on both machines and there's lots of information around here to learn how to make sense of all the data that your machine records.
When it's time to purchase a machine of your own, I would suggest going with an APAP. It gives you more flexibility than a CPAP, which is a fixed pressure machine. I'd recommend the DreamStation if you're not pinching pennies. The main competitor for the DreamStation would be the Resmed AirSense 10 AutoSet. The Resmed machines are typically a bit more expensive and don't really have any additional features, but a lot of people swear by them. SleepyHead also can read the Resmed machines data.
If you are pinching pennies, the a PR System One APAP or a Resmed S9 AutoSet would be cheaper to buy out of pocket.