I use a ResMed S9 VPAP Adapt for central & obstructive apnea.
The machines constantly break and I'm concerned that the newest one is breathing its last, as well.
My apnea was well-controlled and stable. The AHI and AI were zero, night after night. All was going very well and and then one night in December - boom -- the AHI and AI went straight up and stayed up for no reason I could think of. I had not changed drugs, gained weight or anything else that might account for it so I had it replaced .
The replacement came on Dec 11 and the real-time results LCD was a horrific mess. The screen was marred, had two lines that shouldn't have been on it and the numbers were scrunched and very hard to read. The numbers remained terrible. My sleep specialist and a therapist in his office examined it on January 20 and agreed it was dead the day it arrived.
A replacement, model 36037, was delivered January 21 of this year and the real-time results LCD display format does not match the display shown in the manual. It's not nearly as bad but it still doesn't match the manual and the results are just as bad.
If I post some links, would someone please take a peak at the pictures and a video I posted on the web. If that's not allowed, I'd be happy to email the links to you. Thanks.
Welcome! Your story is similar to some that have been posted. This is an outcomes research site. The goal from looking at the stories is to come up with questions common to them that haven't been asked or adequately answered. There have been posts questioning the information on the LED screen or the function of a PAP unit. A question might be one like do PAP users who know and understand what the LED displays mean tend to use their PAP more daily and longer overall? Do those people tend to notify their sleep professionals sooner when there is a problem? Another question might be "where do PAP users get the most useful information about their therapy?"
Troubleshooting for a specific problem is not the intent of this site or the forums. Because your settings and how the PAP unit operates with your breathing pattern is unique to you, your healthcare team is your best resource. Sometimes the home care company your unit came from is a great resource because they would know if there was a common operational issue with a specific PAP therapy or PAP unit. They also look at a ton of downloads and can recognize a unit is malfunctioning or needs a setting change to improve your therapy. If you want to just see if others out there have a solution for you, there are forums intended for that kind of conversation. You are right in that the research nature of this site does not allow exchange of specific medical advice. The American Sleep Apnea Association has a forum that has just been reconstructed. Give it a try at WWW.sleepapnea.org. Please keep the folks here informed of your journey maintaining treatment of your apnea. Welcome to MyApnea!
The new Asaa forums mentioned above are on Facebook.
If you are uncomfortable posting about your medical conditions with your real Facebook identity .. anyone who follows you on facebook would see your post.. apneaboard.com uses a screen name system like this site.
It has a good reputation for technical issues.
Please let us know here how things go. It would be interesting to hear what you think about help from online forums versus other sources.
I have the Resmed S9 that I think is called an "ASV". It elevates the air pressure when it doesn't see inhaling within a certain time -- I guess that IS how my central apnea is supposed to be handled.
It's been about a year since I got it. AHI 0.0 pretty much every night, an occasional 0.1 after 8 hours with a hypopnea being the 1 event in 10 hours for the AHI of 0.1.
It has worked absolutely fine so far, and your post worries me a bit. I have a home health agency that provided the Resmed, and would replace it if there was any problem. I'm well covered by Medicare, I think, for any hardware problem with the machine.
I hope your experience gets better.
I too have an ASV from Resmed, have been using it with very good results. A few months ago my prescribing doctor showed me a letter from Resmed (I think) advising certain patients to discontinue using it. A recent study showed a significant increase in the frequency of heart arrests for patients with CHF with an ejection fraction of less than 45% (I think). That fit me, and I discontinued its use with acute apnea effects evident immediately.
I conferred with my cardiologist and my prescribing doctor and concluded that the benefits of the ASV greatly outweighed the risks for me. I have now been back on the ASV Resmed, with the usual good effects.
So it was quite an unwelcome surprise to hear about the risks, but I'm comfortable with my choice.
HelpfulSapphireDuck--You were right to talk to your doctor- the recommendation is that patients who meet the risk criteria identified by this trial (low cardiac function and central sleep apnea) on ASV discuss their treatment with their doctors, who need to make individualized decisions weighing benefit and risk.
Please take a look at the forum post under NEWS on the Safety Alert regarding use of ASV. Note that this ALERT applies to patients with specifically with heart failure and low cardiac output and predominant central sleep apnea. The results of a large multicenter international trial that was the basis for the Safety Alert were published this month in the New England Journal of Medicine.
There are many questions that this study opens up---such as which specific patients may get benefit or be harmed?--for example, is there a level of heart function below 45% where therapy is safe? What about predominant obstructive apnea in heart failure?
Good luck with your treatment and make sure you continue to talk regularly to your doctors about your treatment.
