CPAP Machines RemStar Plus
Here I would like to share with you my personal experience with CPAP machines. So far I have been dealing with 3 of them. The first one was actually a machine in a sleep apnea symptom study lab, so I don’t know the exact brand of it. The only impression however I’ve got from that first contact with sleep apnea equipment – it is extremely noisy and extremely uncomfortable. So, anyway, at this point I don’t have to many options. My sleep apnea symptom must be treated. Period.
Per my conversation with a technician who has performed my second sleep study at home (he has 10 + years of dealing with it) it is not so important what type of machine, but the actual mask that what makes the difference. Additionally after checking with Internet my head started to spin from volume of information about sleep apnea symptom equipment. So I had decided to trust my doctor’s opinion. Additionally my insurance plan is not covering most of the sophisticated and well-equipped machines. So finally it came - RemStar Plus.
To my astonishment the machine is extremely quiet, almost to the point that I cannot hear it. What else should we ask when talking about sleep apnea symptom cure equipment?
Well, it is sophistication. The fact is – the pressure in this machine is programmed for constant pressure. In theory An Auto CPAP machine (machine that uses two pressure settings; a high setting and a low setting) looks like more sophisticated device. Typically it starts 2 - 4 cm below your normal CPAP pressure) and through the course of the night it senses when you are having an apnea occur. It then begins to slowly raise the pressure toward the set high pressure. One the apnea is overcome it will stay at that pressure for a period of time and then slowly begin to decrease back toward the low pressure.If another apnea occurs in the meantime, it will then begin to increase, so on and so forth. In this way, the machine automatically figures out the best pressure for you to be sleeping at for that particular night. This is a nice feature because your best therapy pressure is not always the same. It greatly depends on your daily activities and your personal habits. That’s how I came to the decision to try S 8 Vantage auto set from ResMed.
S 8 Vantage
My insurance of course was not going to cover two machines purchased within one-month interval, so I simply have found local medical supply store and rented the machine for $100 per month just to try it and to compare it with my first machine.
Here is my observation. This machine is much
noisier than the first one. Auto Set option of course an appealing feature but
for now I have decided to return it back and to stay with RemStar Plus.