If you need a new CPAP machine....

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve been a CPAP user for about 10 years. I did a sleep test at a facility that no longer exists and my prescription was given to me by a doctor that I never met. Using the CPAP religiously really changed my life and that of my wife. My snoring was keeping her from getting a good night’s sleep.

Fast forward to the past Monday. I saw a Facebook ad for a company selling CPAPs and if you didn’t have a prescription, for $99 you could fill out a form and get a new prescription assuming that the doctor agreed that you needed one. Since my Resmed was 10 years old and showing signs of age, I followed the link. They included a promo code so that the $99 doctor “visit” was free. I filled out the form perfectly honestly and the next day, they emailed me a prescription. My new Resmed Airsense 10 arrived today. I took a nap this afternoon and I like it already. I also ordered a heated hose from Amazon so that I can use the humidifier without the rainout problem.

As nearly as I can tell, they didn’t gouge me on the price of the CPAP like I would have expected.

If you’re in the same boat as I was and don’t want to go back for another sleep test, the website is easybreath.com.

I know that this seems spammy but it should be fairly obvious from my posting history that I’m not a spammer. It’s possible that other online DME’s make similar offers. I just know that this one worked for me.

Just thought I’d share.

2

How do you program it to your personalized settings?

3

The prescription says “CPAP - Auto 4-20 cm H2O”. The machine senses how much pressure you need and adjusts accordingly. All you have to tell it is what kind of type of mask you have. I took the default settings on everything else (ramp, humidity, etc.)

4

Exactly. I see my sleep doctor (actually an APRN) every 6 months. She reviews the data from my machine and adjusts setpoints if necessary. (I use the autotitrating ResMed AirSense 10 as well, so she actually adjusts the minimum and maximum pressures.)

Anyway, I think I’d be a little nervous going it alone, because if the setpoints are too high, it is apparently possible to actually create a treatment-emergent central sleep apnea (as opposed to obstructive sleep apnea). Cite.

How do you know if the machine is actually set for this pressure range? Similarly, who monitors what pressure is actually being delivered?

5

That’s an interesting link on central sleep apnea. It seems to say that the cause and cure is using CPAP.

I can monitor my nightly results using an app. Before the new machine, I used Sleepy Head software to see how I was doing.

When I looked at the readings from my nap, the pressure fluctuated between 9 and 13. My setting for my old CPAP was 13 so I take that as a good preliminary sign.

6

Agreed. How did you get the pressures from the new machine?

(I can download a report from ResMed myAir, but it doesn’t give me the pressures.)

7

The thing you’re searching for is the clinician manual.

Here’s a list of quite a few. You’ll need to request the Airsense manual with an email, but the page does describe how to access the clinic settings.

8

[quote=“robby, post:6, topic:849035”]

Agreed. How did you get the pressures from the new machine?
Download the sleepyhead software and install it. Find the sim card in your machine. (Mine is in the lower back) Put the card in the computer and read it with the sleepyhead program.

9

Thanks for the link!

Either the doctor prescribed the default pressure setting, or someone at the DME set it to 4-20.

10

If you do download Sleepy Head, be SURE to set your SD card to read-only before putting it in your computer. I forgot (twice over 10 years) and both times the card was unreadable by my CPAP when I put it back in. The card itself was fine. It just had to be reformatted by the CPAP before it would start writing to it again.