Guess DME's think were all complete idiots

[Scooter32]

Well, I just went to upload the data from my two first nights using my CPAP curious to check how I was doing. I go into Sleepyhead and after figuring out how to correctly upload, it shows my machine info but has no data. After thumbing through the instruction book for my machine making sure I didn't do something wrong; I called up the DME (kinda happy they are in California since it was past 5 here). It seems that when they set up the modem to track my data to report it to the sleep doctor, the default is to go through and turn off all the monitoring for the CPAP user. The person on the phone said its done because people usually get confused and don't know what to make of it. Well, I simply said that wouldn't fly as I wanted to fully track my progress so hopefully within 24 hours, it will be turned back on. Is that a normal practice? Why get a fully data capable machine if the DME will just turn it into a brick on you?

[Sir NoddinOff]

Yeah, that's the way it's going, or so I hear. Give the DMEs a little power and they want the world

[jdm2857]

I'm no expert, but I don't think that there is a way to turn of efficacy data recording to
the SD card of a System One machine.

On a ResMed S9 machine this can be done by setting Sleep Quality to off.

Edit: After doing some research, I believe that the Sleep Quality setting only
affects whether efficacy data is available on the machine's display. The
data is written to the SD card either way.

I'm curious to see what others say about this.

And to answer your question, yes, with rare exceptions, DMEs consider their
customers to be nincompoops.

[Stormynights]

If we couldn't see our own data we wouldn't realize how ignorant some of our doctors, DME's and other professionals really are. Is it possible this might be the reason for them to not want us to see that?

[johnthomasmacdonald]

my limited interaction with my own DMEs for apnea and my much more extensive experience with the DMEs involved with my sisters care seem very similar.

All seemed to want to deliver as little as possible while charging the maximum possible - the maximum that they could squeeze out of the insurance company and then try to get the patient to throw in some more cash.

The best interest of the patient was never a consideration in any way - i guess they do just enough to avoid getting sued or prosecuted for fraud.

In fact, it seems rather ridiculous to even raise this since it is so obvious.

In a similar vein, my sister qualifies for home nursing care and the doctor is willing to write a prescription for it, but we've declined since they are so utterly useless.

They receive a lump sum from medicare and then some more from secondary insurance but THEY determine how to spend it.

I guess they are forced to spend a certain percentage on the patient because what they loved doing was sending people on their payroll ( whether my sister needed them at all - people like speech therapists - my sister's voice is perfectly fine) while fighting me over every roll of adhesive tape - we used to receive boxes big enough for 6 cpap machines that would contain a single roll of adhesive tape - and not a large roll.

[Stormynights]

My Mother had visits from a speech therapist and I was told that it had to do with her ability to swallow not for speaking.

[Pugsy]

Hmm...I don't think there is anything in the PR S1 that turns the data recording off.....I wonder if this belongs in the "whoppers thread". There isn't in my 60 series machine...either one of them...now there is a way to turn off the patient viewing on the LCD screen but not the recording to the SD card. Maybe that is what the dufus was talking about.
It's in the clinical menu...either under therapy or Info ...."Show AHI"...set to ON and the LCD data become available to the patient.
Default is for "Off" so AHI is hidden.

Just curious...which version of SleepyHead are you trying to use? Version number in upper left corner???

[johnthomasmacdonald]

My Mother had visits from a speech therapist and I was told that it had to do with her ability to swallow not for speaking.

If my sister had trouble swallowing no one noticed it or commented on it - what she had was wounds that needed changing every day but they wouldn't send anyone to do that since they said that required a Nurse and they couldn't send a nurse every day - within the family, they'll let the family dog change the bandages but a CNA is NOT sufficient to change a bandage but then they won't send the people who could.

Basically it was clear that they wanted us to throw in the towel, bankrupt ourselves and then go on medicaid and into a nursing home for life

[Scooter32]

I'm using SleepyHead v0.9.2-1. On the machine display it shows the card as being 100% empty so for some reason I don't think data is correctly getting on there. I know after the very first night, I did have more options on the display that were now gone such as AHI, leak rate, etc. I will definitely post a reply after they turn the features back on and see if that changes anything.

[jdm2857]

I have edited my post below to indicate that the Sleep Quality setting on
S9 machines does not affect the data recorded on the SD card. It only affects
the data available on the machine's display.

[Stormynights]

My Mother had visits from a speech therapist and I was told that it had to do with her ability to swallow not for speaking.

If my sister had trouble swallowing no one noticed it or commented on it - what she had was wounds that needed changing every day but they wouldn't send anyone to do that since they said that required a Nurse and they couldn't send a nurse every day - within the family, they'll let the family dog change the bandages but a CNA is NOT sufficient to change a bandage but then they won't send the people who could.

Basically it was clear that they wanted us to throw in the towel, bankrupt ourselves and then go on medicaid and into a nursing home for life

My heart just breaks for you and your sister. I wish I lived close to you. I would love to be able to help out. Sometimes simple things like a home cooked meal can mean a lot.

[Pugsy]

I'm using SleepyHead v0.9.2-1. On the machine display it shows the card as being 100% empty so for some reason I don't think data is correctly getting on there.

Trust me....please
Uninstall your 9.2-1 version (it is not compatible at all with your 60 series machine).

Go here
http://sourceforge.net/projects/sleepyhead/files/ make sure you get the version 0.9.3 files dated May 19, 2013.
I know you thought you got the latest version but you didn't. Look in the list for the May 19 download files and that's what you need.

and then do your download/import and tell me if you have any data showing.

Regarding the card being empty...the amount of data space used is so tiny that it won't register on the card for at least a month.
With mine I had 6 months of data on it and the card was still showing 96% available.

Please try what I suggest and let me know what happens.

[Scooter32]

Oh man, now that's why these boards exist! Pugsy, you are awesome! Installed the new version and it loaded my data! Man, Sleepyhead gives a ton of information! Thanks for helping me with this, I really am curious and like to monitor how things are going!.

[Pugsy]

The bill is in the mail.

The DME can turn off the viewing of the AHI and stuff remotely via the modem...you can turn it back on as many times as they turn it off but they can't stop the machine from writing to the SD card..nor can they stop you from looking at the software.
They won't have a clue about SleepyHead though so I wouldn't even bother mentioning it. They would likely get their panties all in a wad because we aren't supposed to be smart enough to understand all this stuff....hey, it isn't rocket science by any means. SleepyHead was written by a cpap patient originally for he personal use...and it morphed into something much bigger than anyone ever imagined. DMEs and doctors probably don't even know it exists. They only know the Encore software...which BTW...you know who can help with that too.

The only problem was your SleepyHead version. Now that is fixed have fun.
Have you seen the Sleepy Head Tutorial at the top of the Page in the Announcements?

[jdm2857]

Damn!

I should have made the 60-Series -- old SleepyHead version connection.

That's why we keep Pugsy around.