Greetings fellow CPAP users, I recently had my "Medicare compliance" appointment in sleep medicine...at least that's one of the aspects of the initial followup for new CPAP users. They have to show that they have used the CPAP device for at least 4 hours per day in order for Medicare to pay anything. I started using the CPAP machine after my overnight study at Mayo Clinic. I purchased the device at the Mayo Store on Gonda 17 and was kind of surprised that I didn't have the option to pay the full amount. You basically rent it for thirteen months, making your co-payments for what's not covered by Medicare (if you're on Medicare) and then it's yours. An appointment is setup after the first month to check. No problem with the usage for me but I can't say I enjoyed it much.

I'm still working on getting my AHI numbers to 4 or lower. I've had one night at 3.2 and a couple of nights under 5 but other than those successes, the number jumps up and down on a daily basis. I have noticed the bad nights have more sleeping on my back so I try to avoid that if I can. I had thought I found the perfect mask in the Dreamware full face mask but I can't get through a night with it anymore - makes me claustrophobic, so I'm back to the cover the nose and mouth mask that I used in the overnight study which is a ResMed F10 which is marginally better for me than the Fisher Paykel Simplus full face mask I got with the CPAP machine. So now I'm in the situation of wanting to try a different mask but not knowing if I can get another one yet per the 1 mask each 3 months Medicare rule. I can get by with the original one but it has not been what I consider nose friendly with the top of my nose...kind of rubs me the wrong way and provides some red spots for my glasses to reside on. The nurse was pretty happy with the information that was downloaded. She also gave me a tip on a site that sells comfort covers for full face masks. So I'm probably going to visit and get one to see it helps
-- http://www.CPAPComfortCover.com/

Regardless, I'm sticking with it and will keep trying new things until I get into the comfort zone.

Happy Zzzzs to all,
John