YOUTUBE is your friend.
I hope w this news IF you are a smoker, that you stop bc once you start w oxygen, your house gets inpregnated w O2 and the risk of house fires goes up. (for starters.) Sorry you are sick and need assistance.

1/1/2012 for me. It's going to be ok.

Linn Care Yakima Wash....

good luck

It is an easy fit.

I don’t know about costs with your insurance. Husband had Medicare plus supplemental and we had no balance.

Wishing you well through the insurance maze. You might want to call a medical equipment company to see if they take your insurance and find out how it all works.

Don't know what I'll pay extra for CPAP.
Have to schedule the sleep apnea test.

I have Blue Cross Medicare Advantage HMO.

They offered me two choices - taking home a monitor with wires attached to my head, or going into the sleep lab and spending the night. "Night" is not really true - I had to show up a 8 PM, they said I would be out at 6:30 AM but they chucked me out at 5:30 AM.

I elected to do just the one in the hospital because I was sure I had sleep apnea. I hated it - they put sensors all over, including stuck to your head - I think I lost about half my hair when she pulled the tabs out, and the stickum is hard to wash out of long hair. (Tip from the tech - use lots of conditioner before you get your hair wet.)

They put me on a CPAP machine but the respiratory therapist thought I might need a BiPAP machine (one pressure in, different out) so she sent me back for a second test - which showed I didn't need one.

I will never do another sleep test. The second time I really didn't get any sleep and I think it was a waste of money. With my Medicare and supplemental I didn't have to pay anything.

I do have to say that I sleep much better with the CPAP. During the first sleep test I was having 81 incidents (stopped breathing) an hour. With the CPAP I'm down to maybe 4-8 an hour.

My cardiologist was the one to get me into the test - and that was before they found the bad aortic valve.

Last edited Tue Jun 26, 2018, 08:25 AM - Edit history (1)

I have Blue Cross Medicare HMO Advantage.

I get up a couple times a night to go to the bathroom.
How do I do that?

My machine turns off automatically after a little bit, though it still pushes air through to dry out the tube and mask. I use just a nasal mask - they wanted me to have a nasal pillow, but I hate having things touch my nostrils so that was a no go. My biggest complaint is that I can't pull my hair up away from my neck or keep it off my ears because of the way the harness that holds the mask on is made. That took more getting used to than anything else.

Once a week you need to wash your mask and tube, but not the harness. I found that a plastic cake carrier turned upside down was perfect. I squirt a little dish soap in, run warm water and splash in some white vinegar, swirl it around to mix. Then feed the tube in so it gets some of the liquid inside, break down the water reservoir, and put in the mask, swish everything around and let it soak for a few minutes. Pull everything out, rinse, dry it off, put it back together and you're good to go. Usually I turn it on when I hook the tube back on - it runs for a minute until it figures out no one is breathing, then runs slower in the dry off cycle.

You will need distilled water for the reservoir - about 79 cents a gallon will last me a moth in the winter, longer in the summer. When I was in the hospital getting my aortic valve replaced and again when they removed my kidney, they provided sterile water, but that is overkill. Those bottles are great for traveling, though - the distilled water bottles are not very sturdy and the tops don't stay on good.

There are good YouTube videos about the use and ones with reviews of different machines and masks. Those will help you think about what will work for you.

I don't know too much about them, but they seem to be much more friendly than a tank.

I have sleep apnea, and have been using a CPAP for years. I have had great results with the machine, but lately, it has become problematic for some unknown reason. I started having localized seizures when falling asleep and during sleep, and early awakening after 2 or 3 hours. My sleep doctor had me do a second sleep study in order to determine if I need oxygen while sleeping, but it turned out that I don't. However, my brain EEG was whacked during the sleep study, so I am on a waiting list to see a neurologist. I wondered about how you use both oxygen and CPAP at the same time as well, but I never asked since it turned out that was not required for me.

Please get your sleep study. Apnea can be a killer, and you need to stay around for a good long while.

Best wishes to you.

I've been told the oxygen would be delivered through the CPAP mask.

CPAPs retail for a little over $300 and concentrators about $600. The providers usually want to make their cost back in 6 - 12 months. Back of the envelope math says about $25/month for both after your insurance.

I have a concentrator as well as a CPAP. The insert looks like this;



It inserts into the air hose from the machine to the mask like this;



Then just attach the air line from the concentrator to the nipple.

Depending on the type of machine, you may be able to attach the oxygen line closer to the machine or to the machine directly, as opposed to having the O2 line connected near the mask.

I had a sleep test back in December and have been using a CPAP since. I sleep better and deeper. It was a little uncomfortable at first, but I've since gotten used to it.

I figured out the copays, etc, and the payout is less than a year.

(I moved from basically sea level (NYC) to very high in the Rocky Mountains (Mescalero, NM -- about ~8200 feet above sea level at the house ~7000 in the valley) and had some problems adjusting, especially at night. The panicked breathing went away after about a month.)