11-30-2015, 11:40 AM
Years later and still in the dark
Hello There,
I am a 35 year old male and have been using a ResMed S9 for quite a few years now. I had my sleep study done in the mid to late 2000's (somewhere around 2007 I think). There were two separate studies where I stayed overnight at the sleep lab; I was told at the time that my health insurance covered the studies. A couple of months later I was billed over $2,000 for the studies which came as a complete surprise to me. I tried to fight it but inevitably had to cough up the cash (which at that time in my life was not such an easy thing to do). So I was diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea and then I went on to get my machine and start treatment. I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure my prescribed air pressure was 11.0.
I went to the healthcare center I was set up with to pick up my machine. I forget the name of the company then but they have since been bought by Apria Healthcare and that is who I still deal with. A technician met with me, showed me how to secure my mask to my face, how to turn the machine off and on, and sent me on my way. That was it. That was literally it. I have never had any follow up whatsoever, nobody has ever checked my data that apparently lives on the SD card inside the machine, called me, emailed me, met with me; nothing at all. After a few months I was feeling like I wasn't getting much benefit from the machine, so I called the doctor at the sleep lab, explained how I was feeling and asked if I could get an increase in pressure. He said no, that in order to change the pressure I would have to come in for another overnight study. I told him about my insurance issues from last time and how much that hurt me financially and he said there was nothing that could be done.
So I went on for a couple of years just using it. At some point in time I found out on some forum (possibly this one) that I could hold a couple of buttons down simultaneously and access a "hidden" menu where some adjustments could be made. That was a small step in the right direction I suppose as I now had some degree of control over how the machine was working. I'm still completely in the dark however. I don't know if things are working as effectively as they could/should. I don't know how to read my data and interpret the results. Last year I drove to an Apria Healthcare facility, walked in, and told them that I'd been with them for years and nobody had ever checked in with me to look at my data and machine and see how I was doing. The woman looked at me like I was completely psychotic and basically said, "We did everything we were supposed to do." I was pretty disappointed and, once again, just kind of went back to the same old routine.
So here I am after using this machine for quite a few years, Every single morning I sleep through three alarms, I wake up feeling groggy, dizzy and disoriented; spending the first few hours of every day feeling like my head is full of smog. I'm constantly late for work (I was about an hour late this morning). I'm usually extremely unproductive for the first half of the day until I kind of snap out of my fog. Sometimes though I just stay groggy all day and all I can think about is getting back home and crawling into bed. Occasionally I peruse through these forums and I get extremely jealous of everyone talking about all of the support and assistance they're getting from their healthcare provider who is coaching and guiding them through feeling better. I've seen people here that have software where they can look at their sleep data on a computer and analyze the results. Likewise with some guys I've worked with over the years that also have sleep apnea; a guy I work with currently has his data checked regularly by a technician to make sure everything is working correctly.
I have played around with some settings on my S9. Currently I have it set to "Auto" with a range of 12 - 20 and EPR set to Full Time and Level 2. As far as Auto goes, why would there be a reason to not have it set at a pretty broad range? As in setting the range from something like 8 all the way up to 20 and just have the machine figure out what you need and adjust accordingly. I've seen people here that have Auto on and the range is small (like 13 - 16 for example). So I'm confused about that. I also take Vyvanse and Lexapro for some ADHD and anxiety issues and I don't know how those conditions and/or medications tie into all of this.
Hopefully you've read this far - I tried to keep this as concise as possible but I knew I had a lot of frustrations and confusion to get off my chest so thank you for your patience. Ultimately I suppose I am just looking for feedback to see if this whole journey is as unsettling as I think it is or if this is considered pretty normal. And of course some advice and guidance on how to proceed. Am I able to just switch to a different healthcare company with better service? Anything else I could do?
Thanks!
Randy
I am a 35 year old male and have been using a ResMed S9 for quite a few years now. I had my sleep study done in the mid to late 2000's (somewhere around 2007 I think). There were two separate studies where I stayed overnight at the sleep lab; I was told at the time that my health insurance covered the studies. A couple of months later I was billed over $2,000 for the studies which came as a complete surprise to me. I tried to fight it but inevitably had to cough up the cash (which at that time in my life was not such an easy thing to do). So I was diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea and then I went on to get my machine and start treatment. I can't remember exactly, but I'm pretty sure my prescribed air pressure was 11.0.
I went to the healthcare center I was set up with to pick up my machine. I forget the name of the company then but they have since been bought by Apria Healthcare and that is who I still deal with. A technician met with me, showed me how to secure my mask to my face, how to turn the machine off and on, and sent me on my way. That was it. That was literally it. I have never had any follow up whatsoever, nobody has ever checked my data that apparently lives on the SD card inside the machine, called me, emailed me, met with me; nothing at all. After a few months I was feeling like I wasn't getting much benefit from the machine, so I called the doctor at the sleep lab, explained how I was feeling and asked if I could get an increase in pressure. He said no, that in order to change the pressure I would have to come in for another overnight study. I told him about my insurance issues from last time and how much that hurt me financially and he said there was nothing that could be done.
So I went on for a couple of years just using it. At some point in time I found out on some forum (possibly this one) that I could hold a couple of buttons down simultaneously and access a "hidden" menu where some adjustments could be made. That was a small step in the right direction I suppose as I now had some degree of control over how the machine was working. I'm still completely in the dark however. I don't know if things are working as effectively as they could/should. I don't know how to read my data and interpret the results. Last year I drove to an Apria Healthcare facility, walked in, and told them that I'd been with them for years and nobody had ever checked in with me to look at my data and machine and see how I was doing. The woman looked at me like I was completely psychotic and basically said, "We did everything we were supposed to do." I was pretty disappointed and, once again, just kind of went back to the same old routine.
So here I am after using this machine for quite a few years, Every single morning I sleep through three alarms, I wake up feeling groggy, dizzy and disoriented; spending the first few hours of every day feeling like my head is full of smog. I'm constantly late for work (I was about an hour late this morning). I'm usually extremely unproductive for the first half of the day until I kind of snap out of my fog. Sometimes though I just stay groggy all day and all I can think about is getting back home and crawling into bed. Occasionally I peruse through these forums and I get extremely jealous of everyone talking about all of the support and assistance they're getting from their healthcare provider who is coaching and guiding them through feeling better. I've seen people here that have software where they can look at their sleep data on a computer and analyze the results. Likewise with some guys I've worked with over the years that also have sleep apnea; a guy I work with currently has his data checked regularly by a technician to make sure everything is working correctly.
I have played around with some settings on my S9. Currently I have it set to "Auto" with a range of 12 - 20 and EPR set to Full Time and Level 2. As far as Auto goes, why would there be a reason to not have it set at a pretty broad range? As in setting the range from something like 8 all the way up to 20 and just have the machine figure out what you need and adjust accordingly. I've seen people here that have Auto on and the range is small (like 13 - 16 for example). So I'm confused about that. I also take Vyvanse and Lexapro for some ADHD and anxiety issues and I don't know how those conditions and/or medications tie into all of this.
Hopefully you've read this far - I tried to keep this as concise as possible but I knew I had a lot of frustrations and confusion to get off my chest so thank you for your patience. Ultimately I suppose I am just looking for feedback to see if this whole journey is as unsettling as I think it is or if this is considered pretty normal. And of course some advice and guidance on how to proceed. Am I able to just switch to a different healthcare company with better service? Anything else I could do?
Thanks!
Randy
once you have imported your data into sleepyhead, look at AHI. Is it > 5? 
