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Going through crap - LindafromNJ - 04-11-2016
I am not good at this as I have not used this board often. I am just having a difficult time. Was doing good with CPAP for several months. Now very tired each day. I wake up every hour or hour and a half with or without machine. I do fall back to sleep quickly. I have a new doctor who upped my machine from 6 o 8 (have resmed elite 10). to see if it helps. He thought I was on an automatic CPAP machine which I was not. Is one better than the other?
In addition does anyone know if Medicare will pay if you change machines? I have had my machine for 10 mos.
I believe I have fragmented sleep problems in addition to apnea. Does anyone else have this?
RE: Going through crap - chill - 04-11-2016
Can you get into see a sleep doctor? I was originally sent to one as I was spending long hours in bed but not getting much sleep. Unless I took sleeping pills, I was too exhausted to put a sentence together. Long story short, he said that I had bad sleep habits and needed to reset my sleep cycle. He said that for the next week I could not spend any longer than 5 hours in bed, asleep or not. It seemed a cruel thing to do to an exhausted person. The first couple of nights/days were hell. Then I started falling dead asleep within minutes and sleeping until the alarm went off. After that I sleep reasonably normally until my apnea slowly got worse. So some professional advice might be worth getting.
Chuck
RE: Going through crap - Crimson Nape - 04-11-2016
Your A10 Elite has data recording capability. Download SleepyHead and look at your sleep patterns. This will tell a lot about what you're experiencing. It's better to base therapy changes on fact as opposed to guessing. The links are at the top of the page but I've placed them here to male it easier.
SleepyHead:
https://OSCAR Official Download Page ----> CLICK HERE ./
RobySue's Guide to SleepyHead:
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php?title=Beginner%27s_Guide_to_SleepyHead
Remember: When all else fails, read the instructions.
Good luck!
Edit: I see you use ResScan. What is it telling you about your sleep patterns?
RE: Going through crap - justMongo - 04-11-2016
Everyone with (untreated) apnea has fragmented sleep.
Generally the APAP is better than a fixed pressure CPAP; and can run fixed pressure if set that way.
In auto mode, it seeks the pressure level that delivers best therapy.
Medicare will pay for another machine if medically necessary.
Generally the next step is to a bilevel machine; the jump to an APAP they may not pay for without a very good letter from the doctor.
The time to have gotten an APAP was when the initial machine was handed out to you. Medicare would have paid the same price for an APAP; and the DME would have made less profit.
RE: Going through crap - LindafromNJ - 04-11-2016
Thanks for your replies. My original doctor prescribed the CPAP not APAP set at 6. I knew nothing about APAP and trusted my doctor. My scores on the CPAP have been good. With or without the machine I sleep a half hour then up, and hour and a half then up, an hour then up, etc. I can fall asleep most nights. My doctor wanted to put me on Xannix for a month. Concerned about being on addictive drugs so did not use it. Then I was better for 5 months as I was not tired during the day but still had the fragmented sleep. Started a new doctor who upped machine to an 8. Like I said my scores are good on the machine. He wanted me to try the 8 for 6 weeks. No difference still waking up all night and tired during the day. He suggested an APAP but don't know I Medicare will pay for it. I think my problem is neurological or maybe because I am a senior. I feel that if sleep disorders go beyond sleep apnea doctors are clueless. I was good yesterday and exhausted today. I thought I had a good nights sleep last night. Does anyone else have this issue?
RE: Going through crap - justMongo - 04-11-2016
Well, I certainly have good days and bad days. But, I have other health issues that contribute to that.
I sleep, on the average, 6.5 hours per night without waking.
You were wise to avoid Xanax. Even a low dose for a month can create dependency.
And, it's one of the most difficult dependencies to break. There are other choices to initiate sleep without high risk of dependency.
(Remember, these are just my personal opinions.)
RE: Going through crap - PoolQ - 04-11-2016
I will raise my had to your question, you and I are in the same boat. My numbers are fine, most nights, and my sleep Doctor says that the few nights I am above 5 AHI is not enough to get the next level of machine. I usually am happy if I get at least one time a night with 2 hours of sleep, most are 30-60 minutes then getting up for maybe 5 minutes and back to sleep.
I have a Sleep Doctor, a Pulmonologist, and a Cardiologist: the sleep Doctor says to talk with my Pulmonologist and Cardiologist and my Pulmonologist and Cardiologist says it is a sleep issue and to talk to my Sleep Doctor. My personal guess is that none of them know what to suggest.
From day one I have had mostly centrals, but never made it to an ASV machine. The few hypopneas and Obstructive Apneas are under control, which gets my AHI down into the "treated area", so no ASV machine for my Centrals.
I am focusing on my comfort settings, as I have been for a while now. I just the past few days I have discovered that now I do like more humidity than when I started. I used to run passive or a dry tank and could not stand ANY humidity. I had the humidity on manual and off, with a temperature of 61, now I am on auto with 64 temperature.
Point is for me at least, is trying to figure what is waking me up if it's not the apneas, which I admit should be considered under control.
Medicare will pay for what they have to pay for. By this I mean it depends on how aggressive your doctor is in writing the medical necessity letter. If done correctly, they will not make you continue to use a machine that you should not be using in the first place. On the other hand if your numbers are below 5 AHI most of the time it will be difficult to get a different machine.
If you decide to go for a different machine, make a plan with your doctor and I would suggest going for the VPAP or BiLevel machine while you are at it. If you get the APAP and then decide you need the VPAP it may make things more difficult..
For Resmed the machines in order of both cost and treatment styles/options is: CPAP, APAP, VPAP, and ASV. You are on the first level of machine, which works for some and not others.
RE: Going through crap - green wings - 04-11-2016
Linda,
If you know how to download software (which I"m assuming you do if you use ReScan) I would highly recommend downloading the SleepyHead software and taking a look at some of your nightly data.
I've been using CPAP for about three months now. When I had the first follow-up visit with my sleep doctor, he said "oh, your AHI numbers are great! They are around 5!"
Five is a big improvement compared to my sleep study, but I still was feeling very tired and achy almost every morning, so I started looking at the SleepyHead graphs and discovered that my typical night's sleep while using CPAP consists of two periods with very low AHI values with a two-hour or so period in the middle of the night where my AHI values are usually between ten and thirty.
I haven't figured out exactly what is the best method to fix this problem yet, since I have a CPAP machine that puts me at one fixed pressure for the whole night, but I am working on the problem.
Anyway, my point is that your average AHI for the night can be good but you still may be having very poor quality sleep for a portion of the night.
This board also discusses things like mask fit, sleep hygiene, etc., but for issues concerning quality of sleep and how you feel when you wake up in the morning, your machine has a whole bunch of info. that can help in figuring out how to improve that.
RE: Going through crap - LindafromNJ - 04-11-2016
Don't mean to sound stupid but what is VPAP? I was doing so good for 5 months even waking up every hour to two hours as I would go right back to sleep. Thinking the waking up could be hormonal. Although I do have sleep apnea. My scores on my machine are goo. AHI around 1 to 2. I don't think sleep apnea is the only thing going on and the sleep doctors can't seem to get beyond that.
RE: Going through crap - LindafromNJ - 04-11-2016
I have a card in my resmed that takes me to my air to get results. Did not have to download. I am not very computer oriented. How do you do that sleep head download.