Personal Care, Inc.
Personal Care, Inc.
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    • Ashley Tuttle, Customer Service Representative
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Frequently Asked Questions About CPAP

What is Sleep Apnea?
Sleep Apnea is a breath­ing dis­or­der. The Greek word “apnea” lit­er­ally means “with­out breath.” There are three types of apnea: obstruc­tive, cen­tral, and mixed; of the three, obstruc­tive is the most com­mon. Despite the dif­fer­ence in the root cause of each type, in all three, peo­ple with untreated sleep apnea stop breath­ing repeat­edly dur­ing their sleep, some­times hun­dreds of times dur­ing the night and often for a minute or longer.
 
What are the symp­toms of Obstruc­tive Sleep Apnea (OSA)?
The most com­mon symp­toms of OSA in adults are loud snor­ing and exces­sive day­time sleepi­ness. Almost all peo­ple who have OSA snore, but not all peo­ple who snore have OSA. Other signs and symp­toms of OSA include: episodes of not breath­ing; Rest­less toss­ing and turn­ing dur­ing sleep; night­time chok­ing spells, sweat­ing, and chest pain; wak­ing with an un-refreshed feel­ing after sleep, hav­ing prob­lems with mem­ory and con­cen­tra­tion, feel­ing irri­ta­ble and tired, and expe­ri­enc­ing per­son­al­ity changes; morn­ing headaches; heart­burn or a sour taste in the mouth at night; in obese adults, swelling of the legs; get­ting up dur­ing the night to uri­nate; day­time naps or sleep­ing dur­ing inap­pro­pri­ate times or activ­i­ties. Peo­ple with Sleep Apnea may exhibit onset high blood pres­sure, unex­plained weight gain, depres­sion and other health conditions.
What is the most com­mon treat­ment for Sleep Apnea?
The most com­mon treat­ment for Sleep Apnea is CPAP, or Con­tin­u­ous Pos­i­tive Air­way Pres­sure (CPAP), ther­apy. There are sev­eral dif­fer­ent types of machines for Pos­i­tive Air­way Pres­sure (PAP). Treat­ment involves a PAP machine and a mask.
 
What is a CPAP Machine?
CPAP stands for Con­tin­u­ous Pos­i­tive Air­way Pres­sure. A CPAP machine deliv­ers a con­stant flow of air into your mask, at a con­stant pres­sure deter­mined by your doc­tor, to open your air­way, and deliver air to your lungs. With a CPAP sys­tem, you must exhale your air back thru your mask and against the pres­sure of the CPAP. For most sleep apnea patients, this can be uncom­fort­able at first, but eas­ily adapted to within a few weeks. How­ever, some patients, espe­cially those at higher pres­sure set­tings, still have a hard time adjust­ing to their machine. For those patients, some of the man­u­fac­tur­ers have devel­oped a fea­ture on their machines that slightly lessens the air pres­sure when the patient exhales. For instance, Respiron­ics calls their expi­ra­tory pres­sure relief fea­ture “C-Flex”. C-Flex drops the machine’s pres­sure slightly at the begin­ning of the exhale cycle, which makes the ther­apy more tol­er­a­ble for many patients.
 
What is an Auto-Machine or APAP?
With an APAP, some­times referred to as an auto-titrating machine, the machine is set to a “range” of pres­sures and will move up or down within that range to pro­vide the patient with the right amount of pres­sure dur­ing the night to over­come air­way obstruc­tions or apneas. If you are con­stantly fight­ing with your CPAP, you can ask your Doc­tor to write you a pre­scrip­tion for this type of machine. Many peo­ple who can­not tol­er­ate CPAP can tol­er­ate the auto titrat­ing machines. APAP machines have the ben­e­fit of auto­mat­i­cally com­pen­sat­ing for your chang­ing CPAP pres­sure needs. Your pres­sure needs can vary over time as you gain or lose weight, or as you get older. Your pres­sures can even vary from night to night, for instance, if you have taken cold med­ica­tion or con­sumed alco­hol; this can cause the mus­cle tone in your air­ways to lessen, and it will take more air pres­sure to keep them open.
 
What is a BiLevel or BiPAP machine?
A BiPAP, or BiLevel has two dif­fer­ent pres­sure set­tings; one for inhala­tion (IPAP) and one for exha­la­tion (EPAP). The machine pro­vides the inhala­tion pres­sure, and then switches to a lower pres­sure dur­ing exha­la­tion. This dif­fers from CFlex because the exhale pres­sure is an exact set­ting, not just a drop in pres­sure. BiLevel machines are some­times required by patients who have rel­a­tively high pres­sure set­tings and find it uncom­fort­able to exhale against the pres­sure. Also, some patients have under­ly­ing con­di­tions like weak chest wall mus­cles or COPD that make it dif­fi­cult or impos­si­ble to exhale against higher pressures.
What are the ben­e­fits of adding humid­i­fi­ca­tion to CPAP therapy?
Many peo­ple who are pre­scribed a reg­u­lar CPAP reg­i­men end up suf­fer­ing from dry­ness and con­ges­tion in their nasal pas­sages and throat, sore throats, and even nose bleeds. This is caused by the dry­ing effect of the pres­sur­ized air mov­ing across the mucous mem­branes. Humid­i­fi­ca­tion can help by adding addi­tional mois­ture to the air that trav­els into the lungs. The addi­tional mois­ture can help com­pen­sate for dried out nasal and throat tis­sues, pre­vent­ing the prob­lems men­tioned above.
 
How do I know which machine I need?
First you must find out if your doc­tor pre­scribed for you a CPAP, CPAP with CFLEX, Auto-Titrating CPAP (Auto-PAP, APAP), Bi-Level (BiPAP), or an auto-titrating Bipap (Bipap Auto). The type of machine your doc­tor chooses for you is based on the infor­ma­tion he received from your Sleep Study. If you are unsure, please ask your doc­tor why he chose a par­tic­u­lar type of machine for you. 
What is the dif­fer­ence between a cool passover humid­i­fier and a heated humidifier?
Humid­i­fiers func­tion through the process of water evap­o­ra­tion as air is drawn across a pool of water. A cool passover humid­i­fier tries to use the sur­face area of the water to max­i­mize humid­i­fi­ca­tion. There­fore, these units are usu­ally wide and flat, and are usu­ally stand-alone units. Heated humid­i­fiers increase the evap­o­ra­tion rate by heat­ing the body of water. The evap­o­ra­tive process is enhanced due to the higher tem­per­a­ture of the water. Since the sur­face area of the water is not as impor­tant, heated humid­i­fiers can usu­ally be much more com­pact than passover humidifiers.
 
I am get­ting exces­sive water con­dens­ing in my mask and breath­ing tube. Is there any way to stop this from happening?
“Rain­out” is the term that is com­monly applied to this con­di­tion, and it is usu­ally caused by mois­ture con­dens­ing from the warm, moist air mov­ing through the rel­a­tively cool breath­ing tube. Some pos­si­ble solu­tions to this prob­lem would be to make sure that the humid­i­fier is not posi­tioned at a level above the patient. Also, some­times this can be alle­vi­ated by sim­ply rout­ing the breath­ing tube under the cov­ers to keep it warm. If this is not an option, there are hose wraps made of fleece-like mate­r­ial that can be wrapped around the breath­ing tube to insu­late it. Some­times, sim­ply turn­ing the humid­i­fier set­ting down slightly will cure this, or rais­ing the tem­per­a­ture of the room a lit­tle bit.
 
What is a nasal mask?
A nasal masks seals around the entire nose and is held in place with straps, or head­gear. ** Please Note — if your mouth comes open at night-you may need to use a chin strap (a strap that goes under­neath your chin and fas­tens on top of your head-this helps to keep your mouth closed) or a Full Face Mask (a full face mask cov­ers your nose and mouth)
 
What is a full face mask?
A full face mask seals around both the nose and mouth and is held in place with straps, or head­gear. Full face masks are used for ‘mouth breathers’. For some peo­ple the mouth tends to drop open unknow­ingly dur­ing sleep. This allows the treat­ment pres­sure (what your machine pres­sure is) blow­ing through the nose through a nasal mask to escape through your mouth, which means your air­ways are not held open by your pre­scrip­tion pres­sure any longer. The full face mask allows you to con­tinue to receive your ther­a­peu­tic pres­sure because your nose and mouth are cov­ered and you are not los­ing your pres­sure. Some­times nasal block­ages like a com­mon cold or those who have nasal con­ges­tion due to ill­ness or aller­gies might also need a full face for con­sis­tent treat­ment. Many peo­ple will use a nasal mask dur­ing most of the year and will switch to their full face mask when they can’t breathe through their nose.
What are Nasal Pil­lows or Nasal Cushions?
Nasal pil­lows sit right at the entrance to your nose-or, your nos­trils. They don’t go in far, they form a gen­tle cush­iony seal and are held in by a formed head­gear. The cush­ion does not fit over the tip of the nose or rest on the bridge. A nasal cush­ion nor­mally seals over both nos­trils and is sim­i­lar to the nasal pillows.
 
Does every mask work with every machine?
Yes-every mask works with every machine. In other words, if you have a Respiron­ics machine and want a Fisher/Paykel mask-they are all compatible-no mat­ter what com­bi­na­tion. How­ever, always read the man­ual that comes with your machine and mask for up to date infor­ma­tion on com­pat­i­bil­ity issues with auto-titrating machines.
 
Does every mask fit on my tubing?
Yes, every mask is made with a uni­ver­sal fit to your tub­ing. Occa­sion­ally, we hear that peo­ple are hav­ing trou­ble get­ting their new mask on their old tubing-it is almost ALWAYSbecause a piece of your old mask is stuck on the end of your tub­ing by mistake.
 
How often will insur­ance pay for new sup­plies for my CPAP?
Medicare and most insur­ance will pay for new sup­plies as follows:Nasal and Full Face Masks 1 every 3 monthsHead­gear 1 every 6 monthsTub­ing 1 every 3 monthsNasal Pil­lows 2 every 1 monthFull Face Liner 1 every 1 monthWhite Dis­pos­able Fil­ter 2 every 1 monthGrey Non Dis­pos­able Fil­ter 1 every 6 months
 
Do I have to take my machine with me when I travel?
The answer is almost always yes. Check with your doc­tor to deter­mine if trav­el­ing with­out your CPAP is safe.
 
Can I use my machine if I travel out of the country?
Yes. Some machines are made to han­dle 100 to 240 volts. Those that do not have this dual capa­bil­ity will need a con­verter. Keep in mind that you will require an adap­tor which will allow you to use a US power cord in an over­seas outlet.
 
Can I use my CPAP while camping?
If you are going to a camp­ing ground where nor­mal mains power is avail­able you should always use your CPAP. If you are con­cerned about the envi­ron­ment being much colder than your bed­room, you should dis­cuss this with your sleep clinic or sup­plier before leav­ing. Some sim­ple reme­dies such as run­ning CPAP tubes under the bed­clothes may be suf­fi­cient to warm the inspired air. Alter­na­tively, you may need to con­sider hire or pur­chase of a heated humidifier.
 
Can I use my CPAP with a battery?
Using CPAP with a bat­tery requires some plan­ning and you need to con­sult your CPAP sup­plier well before leav­ing on your hol­i­day. Some newer CPAP machines are able to oper­ate directly from a bat­tery in which case you will only need the adap­tor from car to CPAPmachine. Other machines will oper­ate if a suit­able inverter is used. An inverter is a device that takes input from a bat­tery (12V DC), and makes it into a sim­i­lar volt­age to nor­mal mains power (240V AC). You should be aware that dif­fer­ent invert­ers may vary in their char­ac­ter­is­tics and some may be more suit­able than oth­ers for use with your CPAP machine. Use of an inverter that is unsuit­able for your machine may shorten the life of the CPAP machine by plac­ing greater stress on the motor. It is very impor­tant that you con­sult the sup­plier of yourCPAP for infor­ma­tion about which invert­ers are recommended.
 
How long will my CPAP run on a battery?
This is very depen­dent on the type of CPAP machine and the pres­sure deliv­ered. Older CPAPmachines tend to use more power and when the pres­sure deliv­ered is higher, more power is used. In gen­eral a well charged car bat­tery will oper­ate a mod­ern CPAP machine (through an inverter) for at least 8 hours. How­ever, it is impor­tant that if you are depen­dent on that bat­tery to start you car in the morn­ing, you check this out before find­ing your­self stuck with a flat bat­tery. If you can afford to buy a sec­ond bat­tery, a deep cycle marine or recre­ational vehi­cle bat­tery would be a good invest­ment. An auto elec­tri­cian could arrange for this to be charged from your car’s alter­na­tor while trav­el­ling. In this way you will not be depen­dent on your CPAP bat­tery to start the car. A bat­tery charger may also be a good invest­ment for those times when you can use mains power to recharge the battery.
 
Can I use my CPAP on a ship or plane?
Yes, but because of increased secu­rity mea­sures at air­ports, it may be eas­ier to travel if you have a copy of your pre­scrip­tion for your CPAP machine with you. It also is sug­gested that you call your air­line ahead of time and ask if there is a spe­cial screen­ing pro­ce­dure required to carry on or check your CPAP device. See the CPAP travel page for more information on airline guidlines. Cruise ships and long dis­tance air­planes are equipped with power out­lets that are suit­able for use with most CPAP machines. You must con­sult with the air­line or ship­ping line con­cerned to find out the volt­age that is avail­able to you and then con­firm with your clinic or sup­plier that the pump will oper­ate at this volt­age. The air­line will gen­er­ally require com­ple­tion of a med­ical cer­tifi­cate by your doc­tor and may only approve the use of spe­cific units dur­ing flight. As these arrange­ments with air­lines can take some time it is best to com­mence these well before the date of departure. 
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