[ducttape45]

I don't know if anyone else saw this. I've been doing a lot of research into sleep apnea lately. I was diagnosed with it in 2016, but it wasn't until my Covid infection, then developing Long Covid, that this has really hit home with me. I have a ResMed machine and it works great, but I'm eligible to get a new machine and I'm not going to let the medical community try and stick me with a Philips machine, especially now.

[gov_bean_ counter]

My supplier doesn’t have a single Phillips machine in their store. I have ResMed as well.

[Aut Pax Aut Bellum]

There are You Tube videos on how to take yours apart and remove the foam. I did that to mine. Then they sent me a new one and I stuck that away in a closet for when mine quits.

[grcuster]

My Pulmonary Doctor made it a point they provide me a Resmed machine as she didn’t trust the other options. I was always using a Resmed when I had Kaiser for many years, but Medicare/TFL through Apria filled the prescription.

[montanajoe]

The VA gives me a ResMed machine every couple of years and I’m quite happy with it..

[iontheball]

The Philips CPAP foam flap has caused a spillover backlog for CPAP machines in the field. I had to wait for a ResMed unit for about a year beyond my old machine’s normal five-year replacement date. Fortunately, my old machine kept working in the meantime. I don’t understand why a recall to remove the degrading foam in the Phillips units wasn’t the simplest answer to the problem. The ‘regulators’ got into the picture and mucked up the entire matter.

[Macho MAGA Man]

I’m currently using a React Health Luna G3 CPAP machine. Super quite!

[Myrddin]

I ignored my sleep apnea for years. Last May, I asked my doctor to schedule a sleep apnea test. It was a home use device. So few available that it took 60 days to get to use it for one night. Results: AHI 15. A mix of apnea and hypopnea. A few potential central apnea detections.

I was tagged up with a local medical device supplier and outfitted with a ResMed Airsense 10. It has a CDMA cellular card to perpetually tattle on your usage. Initially dispensed with an F20i full face mask. Not happy with that. Purchased the N30i. Better, but can slip off the nose. Final config is P30i with the pre-heat hose.

I'm paying $91/month for 13 months of "rental". The payments stop and I own the device on the 13th month. Periodic "supplies" are billed and delivered. Nose pillows. Head frames. Heated hose. Filters. I purchased an ultrasonic cleaner and an ozone sanitizer. Ozone is fast, but stinky. Ultrasonic takes time to haul the device to the kitchen sink, fill with hot water, add sanitizer tablets and equipment, then run for 20 minutes. Drain and dry the equipment and return to storage. Ultrasonic does a better, nice smelling job of cleaning, but takes more effort.

BTW, it appears the penalty for ignoring the sleep apnea is a measurable (by blood test) impact on my left ventricle. I should have acted 10 years ago. My best friend from college was found cold and dead in his favorite chair at home. It appears sleep apnea finally caught up with him.

[Manic_Episode]

I’m down about 45 lbs and my apnea has improved greatly.

[miele man]

Thanks for posting this.

[Boomer]

From what I’ve heard, it was those CPAP cleaning machines that caused the foam to degrade and cause problems. Those who never used those things never had a problem.

That’s what I’ve been lead to believe anyway. I took mine apart before sending the recalled one back and it was like new even after years of use.

I don’t see how Philips could have foreseen this happening.

[Islander7]

I had over 30 years experience in sleep testing and treatment. RESMED makes the best devices on the planet. Phillips bought Respironics, which was the pioneering CPAP / BIPAP manufacturer. It was an American company. I’ve distributed thousands of Respironic devices. When Phillips bought them, the quality and reliability took a nose dive. For years I refused to use their equipment despite pressure from my employer. Turns out I was right to do so.

[Flaming Conservative]

Medicare will only pay for a portion, and you have to rent it forever, at the copay of $215/month. My husband uses it. It’s considered a noninvasive respirator, instead of just a cpap. I’ve been trying to get him to go back to using his regular cpap machine, which we own. We really can’t afford that copay, especially with bidenomics hiking the price of everything.

[6ppc]

Been on cpap for 15 years. Respironics appears to be the best. Had a Phillips for a while but switched back.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

I applied for a new machine about 2 years ago. After a year they finally responded, offering me 50 genuine American smackers for my Philips System One machine. I said no, holding out for replacement, and bought a new one (Airsense 10) online out of pocket, paying just a little more than my insurance copay would have been. A few months later they offered me a replacement machine (Dream Machine). So I packaged up the old System One and swapped it. The Dream Machine sits on the shelf unused as a backup.

I never had a problem with the System One - still worked great after 10 years use. The Airsense is much quieter and is a good machine also. I never had a problem with the foam insulation - so I am a bit perturbed that, should I need one, I won’t be able to get another Philips machine.

[ducttape45]

It looks like this was a good topic to post on. I included ConservativeMind on this reply to see if he'll shoot this out to his "The “Take Charge Of Your Health” Ping List folks for further dissemination.

I wonder though, and it's a question that came to mind late last night, but how many hours a day do CPAP users use their machines? I use mine mostly during the evening hours when I go to bed, but I'll also use it if I lay down during the day as well. I'll sometimes use it 10-12 hours during a 24 hour span of time.

Thoughts?

[ConservativeMind]

Thanks, ducttape45!

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[Calm_Cool_and_Elected]

ResMed here, sleep like a baby now.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks for posting. About ten years ago I was dead-tired at work and would fall asleep at my desk. I also would wake panting and out of breath. I had dreams where I was running and just could not catch my breath. I saw my doctor and he said "go see a sleep doctor." I did the full overnight polysomnography (sleep study) and it showed pretty severe sleep apnea.

I've been using ResMed the past five years or so and it definitely has helped. I started with a CPAP but later switched to a BiPAP.

Here are some things I've learned.

1. The "Apnea Board" is just like FReeRepublic -- lots of people helping each other and discussing sleep apnea, machines, therapies, interpretation of data, etc. I highly recommend the board. The people there will help you tweak your machine settings to get the most out of it. There are thousands of discussion threads and all very well organized. To give you an idea, here are the recent topics on the page sidebar right now:

Recent Forum Topics

• OSCAR Data - High AHI low leak
• What can you do after a fire?
• Advice on pressure adjustments
• Phillips update.
• Liz's CPAP therapy
• Intermittent "mooing" noises from (new) machine
• Looking for advice on my sleep test results

There's a great Your Personal CPAP Success Story with 1,362 replies. People discuss their experiences like on this thread.

2. At the Apnea Board, I learned about fantastic free software called "OSCAR" ("Open Source CPAP Analysis Reporter"). You put an SD Card in your CPAP machine and periodically take it out and plug it into a card reader attached to your computer. You open OSCAR and import the data. It shows you ALL the details and numbers of your sleep, minute-by-minute all night long, WAY beyond a simple AHI index (which is included, too). Be sure to eject the card from your PC or Mac and put it back into your CPAP machine.

3. There are wearable Pulse-Oximeters you can wear overnight and the data can be imported into OSCAR. You then see your blood oxygen levels aligned with all of your sleep data on the charts. I like the idea that you can directly measure your blood oxygen and pulse all night long -- after all, that's what this is all about, right? I use a Chinese product called the "O2 Ring." It's available on Amazon. They provide their own software "O2 Insight Pro" that provides a summary Sleep Report with graphs of your O2 and pulse overnight. It's the same data that gets imported to OSCAR. You can download the Sleep Reports as pdfs or as txt data. If you are inclined and comfortable programming, you can do all sorts of analytics on your data over time.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

How long does this "toxic foam" take to break down?

[Seaplaner]

Thanks for the update. IIRC, Phillips bought into the xPAP biz by taking over an excellent little company called Respironics that made a fine product.

Then, they made some changes... the rest being history.

I'm curious as to whether the original recall was necessary if the patient did not use heated humidification or any type of O3 cleaner. My suspicion is that the foam would be stable if not steamed or nuked.