Reply #19: At Home Sleep Test

[casaloma]

I have severe obstructive sleep apnea (something like 60 episodes an hour) and I had an at-home test which involved putting all these leads on yourself, but then sleeping normally in your own bed, which seemed to work out fine. Then, after I had the mask and the CPAP, I was tested again to make sure it was working. The mask is difficult but the alternative, which for me was sort of dozing through life, was unbearable. The other thing I can add is that, judging from sleep disorder msg boards I belong to and my own experience, the general experience with suppliers is just horrible. Apria is my supplier and their incompetence would have been funny if it wasn't so frustrating. Just one example. I work in a prison and you can't take your cell phone in. I told them at least a dozen times not to call my cell phone b/c I wouldn't get the msg until 5 and they're closed. At least a dozen times I return to the car to find an "urgent" msg that I can't respond to. So I tell them and they're sort of grouchy, like they're committed, for some reason, to using the cell phone but agree to use my work phone. The very next time, yes, there's a msg on my cell phone. And they get cranky b/c I don't return the call that day. I could go on and on but with service like this, given how brain dead many of us are before treatment, it's a miracle anyone gets any treatment at all.