I found out personally that the general atmosphere on that site (CPAPTALK) is basically distrust of sleep techs, sleep doctors, dme providers, and a belief that everyone should self-titrate and avoid supine sleep at all costs.
But if you want proof for yourself, all you have to do is go to that website and write: "Take this from a registered sleep tech: you should not be adjusting your CPAP machine yourself" and watch the magic happen.
1. In general, I think that most of us have very little against sleep techs. Unless they are grossly incompetent, I'm sure that the biggest frustration any of us has with the techs is directly related to the original discussion topic - that we, as patients, would love to have results sooner than 2-4 weeks later, even if they are preliminary. And that frustration is one that the sleep techs seem to share.
2. I don't think that any of us have a distrust of good sleep doctors. The problem occurs when we run across bad sleep doctors. But again, if a doctor is accessible (a 6-month wait to see the doctor doesn't count), attentive (actually takes the time to read the patient's chart before an appointment, and takes the time to answer questions during the appointment), and knowledgable (doesn't, for example, mistake birth control pills for antidepressants in a patient's history and then try to write off symptoms of OSA as depression), then patients probably wouldn't have any distrust of them.
3. Distrust of DME providers? That one's 100% true, and with good reason. But how many sleep techs have actually had to deal with a DME as a patient and experienced the runaround?
4. Should everyone self-titrate? No. I don't think anybody here advocates that. Self-titration can be a viable option for people without insurance and access to updated sleep studies, those whose doctors refuse to listen to the patient's continued symptoms, etc. Basically, if money was not an issue and all sleep doctors were competent, self-titration would not be necessary.
5. Avoid supine sleep? I've not noticed that being pushed here at all. The only time I've ever seen it mentioned is in the case of recently diagnosed waiting on CPAP, or a CPAP user who for whatever reason can't use their machine (like a power failure). It's rarely mentioned as a primary treatment for OSA (unless backed by a sleep study in that individual).
6. I'd really love it if some sleep tech came here and posted exactly why we should not adjust our machines ourselves. Not just that we should take their word for it because they are sleep techs, but the actual reasons why. Why is it such a big deal that, when my doctor bumped my pressure from 8 to 10, that I eventually backed it down to 9.5 without consulting her? Is there something inherently dangerous about the pressure of 9.5 that wasn't present at 8 or 10?
