Cpapian

Dr Barry Krakow is a sleep specialist and fellow pap'er. This link outlines something he tried to help his restless legs/plmd

http://www.sleepdynamictherapy.com/index.php/a-new-approach-to-treating-restless-leg-syndrome-and-periodic-leg-movement-disorder/

Again. I don't think you get what Canada is about in terms of health care. We haven't taken any bold steps. My doctor still manages my health care and he doesn't want me to change the settings. I don't, but only because my AHI is so good, I don't need to. But if I decide to make any changes, it is against my doctors advice. Basically, we are pretty much the same as the US in terms of follow up and care. The only difference, and it is a big difference, is that our doctor visits, hospital stays, procedures, surgeries, etc are covered by our Provincial government. In terms of CPAP, a sleep test would be covered, probably in every province. My province negotiates the cost of xpap and pays 75%. No other province in the country is that generous. The range elsewhere is anywhere from 0 to our 75%.

Other than the $$$ part of health care, we are pretty similar to the US. I think in terms of worldwide ranking our health care is ranked higher than the US largely due to it's availability to all Canadians and the lower costs.

I am glad to see you found one of the other forums. I started xPAP a year ago and got right into the forums before I even got my first machine. I think it helped me have a positive attitude and success from the first day on.

Have you tried changing the humidity. Some people stuff up on high humidity and do better on low humidity. Others - vice versa.

Another thing to try is a Neti pot or one of the similiars. Ask the pharmacist at a Walmart. Less than $10. Rinses out your sinuses.

I am in Ontario and between the gov't and private insurance I paid nothing. My sleep doctor did a titration and follows up every other year. My DME followed up for a while but she quickly realized I was capable of monitoring my own results with Sleepyhead. She was pretty awesome tho - gave me some good tips. Now they just call to remind me to change filters. I think for $35 they will monitor for 5 years.

Nevertheless, both our situations are a far cry from Snuzy's intimations.

Little concerned about you sharing false information about Canadian health care. Particularly when it was pretty much gratuitous. Why ever would you say such a thing. We have excellent care and follow up, our medical records matter and our clinicians care. We are not "left to our own devices".

I suggest you limit your comments to matters in which you are knowledgeable.

Actually, you are comparing a dozen oranges to one. An AHI of 5 is an average per hour. So during an 8 hour sleep, you would have had 40 apnea events. Fourty apnea events in a night, would likely prevent your sleep from cycling through the various sleep stages, such as REM, deep, etc. Without cycling through the various sleep stages, I doubt you would wake up feeling refreshed.

I wouldn't be happy with an AHI of 5. Last night my AHI was 2.3 and that was my worst night in quite a while.

There are several things you can do to follow your treatment to optimize. There is a free software called Sleepyhead that has been developed. It allows you to see each and every breath during a nights sleep. It also gives you charts and statistics, a breakdown of your events, when they happened. It will show you if you have flow limitations, if you are reaching your maximum and need higher pressure. It will tell you if you had leaks and when and the list goes on. Pretty neat stuff.

There are other steps to take to feeling better, but knowing your treatment is effective and lowering your AHI to it's best is a good place to start.

Hello Sleepydiane, in Dr. Steven Parks book "Sleep Interrupted" he discusses the possibility of children with OSA being diagnosed as ADHD.