No insurance; APAP without prescription

Hi, guys. I’m fairly certain I have sleep apnea. My insurance has a rediculously high deductible that I will never meet and I cannot afford a sleep study. Can I purchase a machine off Craigslist and self-titrate? If so, what machine do I need? Anything I need to know about the masks, etc.? Thanks!

Hi... slow down a bit . You may have apnea, of which type you can't know without a proper study (and it matters as to which machine you would use), but you also may have 1,000 conditions that mimic apnea in certain ways. What specific symptoms do you have? Yes, you can get machines without scripts but you won't necessarily do yourself a favor without any more to go on besides 'thinking' you have apnea. You can possibly get at least a home study done depending on your local circumstances (U.S. members will advise re insce etc. here) but you really should e.g. at least look (Google) an Epworth Sleepiness test among other things before jumping off the machine cliff.

Yes...you can self diagnose and self treat but it takes a lot of work and education on your part to do it.
You have to know which machines will help you with data and which won't to start with so don't just go on craiglist and buy any cheap machine.

And masks...that's a crap shoot in the best of circumstances.

So specifically what symptoms are you having that lead you to think you have sleep apnea?

To the OP:

You did not state why you think you have Sleep Apnea, so I really can't guess how well you fit the profile. In any case, fitting the profile to a "tee" can't guarantee you have it, while being being completely outside the profile, can't guarantee that you don't!

If it turns out that you have obstructive sleep apnea, you can probably do what you're proposing, and perhaps get good results. If you have central or "mixed" sleep apnea, and/or a different sleep/wake disorder, this really needs to be treated by a sleep doctor.

From reading previous threads, it looks like a ResMed Auto would be my best bet. What do you think?

Symptoms:

-Wake up in the middle of the night gasping for air/choking.
-Wake up in the morning completely exhausted, sore muscles, achey.
-daytime sleepiness.
-Family history (on both paternal and maternal aides) of OSA.

No other medical conditions.

Achiness is not particularly a symptoms of apnea. When did you last have a complete work-up by your MD for e.g. cardiac status, blood sugar, hormones, thyroid, etc. etc? There are so many other things where symptoms overlap and you're not responding to questions here - how do you know you have no other conditions? You want an instant answer to a 'maybe' problem but you may not be doing yourself a favor and could prolong or worsen what is going on (besides apnea) if such exists. Don't rush at this... better to know what's what before jumping at the first 'obvious' thing. And EVEN if you have apnea, you could also have other things that would need addressing beforehand or simultaneously.

My last work up was 6 months ago. My primary doctor suspected I have sleep apnea... so there’s that as well. He couldn’t pinpoint it to anything else.

Is there any question that you might even have fibromyalgia?

No. He only suspected sleep apnea. My mom let me borrow her cpap once. My God, it was like I woke up a whole new person. Completely and utterly refreshed.

ResMed Auto would be a good choice and what I would do in your situation.

The most current model....AirSense 10 AutoSet or the AutoSet for Her
the slightly older big brother....S9 AutoSet

Masks....like I said it's a crap shoot in the best of circumstance because different people have different faces and different needs.

If you can normally breathe through your nose just fine then I would start with a nasal mask of some sort and the nasal pillow masks simply have less real estate touching your skin anyway that's going to need to seal. More real estate means more silicon touching the skin needing to seal.

Even if you have a history of minor nasal congestion...I would start with nasal pillows and worry about "do I need a full face mask" later should the need come up.

Now if you have chronic nasal congestion issues and you simply cannot get the nose opened up so that you can comfortably breathe through your nose most of the time then go with a full face mask.
Deviated septum doesn't necessarily mean that nasal pillows are out of the question either.

Masks require a RX to be on file at most of the online sources like cpap.com.
If you have a friendly doctor or NP or dentist who would write the RX then you could make use of any return insurance that might be offered to limit the cash outlay. These puppies aren't cheap and it sucks to buy something you hate and have to just eat $100 or more bucks.

If that's not an option there are ways to get cpap masks and not have to rob a bank and you can get by without a RX.
Sometimes you can buy replacement parts and build a complete mask (Ebay good source for this but you have to know what parts are needed for what you are trying to build) and sometimes Amazon is a good source for even complete mask packages.
Most Amazon sellers won't let you return a mask though...but that's what you get when you pay less.
You might check Amazon...I have seen some machines there and sometimes at good prices and sometimes more along the lines of online retail.

Craigslist..used...an option but you have to know the models and be willing to take a bit of a risk.

We do have a few forum members who dabble in machine accumulation and resale...either their own private machines as they upgrade or they stumbled across a machine somewhere.

There are places online that will do an in home sleep study if you want to go that way.
Just be aware that home sleep studies have varying levels of comprehensiveness and the cheapest isn't always the best or all that complete. The cheapest just measure pulse oximetery or oxygen level drops and a person can still have sleep apnea and not have the oxygen levels drop all that much.

Since your PCP suspects sleep apnea...maybe he would be willing to write RX for you especially for the masks.

Well then it would be great if someone here from the U.S. helped you to get a machine... but then also pointed you to the software needed to gauge your response (not the e.g. 3 things that show up on the screen - if you're lucky) but many more features that will guide how things go. And if Cpap works well eventually, then you'll see if everything else is good too.

Forgot to mention the software...save this page as it has the link for Sleepyhead software that will work great with the ResMed machines listed above.
https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment

And if you are wondering what we are talking about...see this thread for examples
viewtopic/t158560/How-to-post-images-for-review.html

And the rest of it is education on what you see on those reports to help you evaluate things and that takes time and experience but there are several forum members here that are happy to try to help.

Thanks, guys. That was very helpful! Except, I’m still confused on what exactly I need in the way of masks. My primary won’t write a script without a sleep study (not sure about my dentist).

To clarify, I will be looking for:

AirSense 10 AutoSet or the AutoSet for Her?

Once I have that, I need to find a nasal mask?

I found one one Craigslist for $450. Hard to know if this is a legit seller? I always worry about being scammed.

Christine..Check your PMs

Go here and just look at the mask options. Get an idea what you might think you want to try.
https://www.cpap.com/cpap-masks.php

Then go shopping for the cheapest place to buy it. I would look at Amazon...they won't require a RX.
Sometimes EBay parts add up to be less than the Amazon whole package price but sometimes not and you have to know all the parts but you might looks. Sometimes EBay sellers sneak in a whole mask package until the EBay police catch them. EBay doesn't allow complete mask packages because complete packages require a RX and replacement parts don't. I know...stupid law but it is what it is.

If you think nasal pillows look interesting to you...look at the ResMed AirFit P10 that I use...link in my equipment profile.
It's about as close to nothing in terms of masks as there is out there and the way it diffuses the vented air it's essentially silent and won't give your bed partner a blast of cold air if he/she gets too close.

This mask is a nice mask and the price is excellent for the fit pack.
https://www.amazon.com/Respironics-Drea ... gel+pillow

I don't see a P10 package on Amazon but this
https://www.amazon.com/Airfit-Short-Ass ... ResMed+P10

and this
https://www.amazon.com/Headgear-ResMed- ... ResMed+P10

plus one of the nasal pillows makes a complete P10 package..You won't know size though.

So go look at cpap.com and get an idea what looks interesting and decide what kind you want...and then go shopping.

And sometimes if you just ask the forum members if they have something they don't like or need...sometimes they have a past mask experiment they will sell at a discount. That's how I funded all most all of my past experiments with various masks...gently used from forum members.

Never hurts to ask..and might save you some money.