SleepingUgly wrote:I don't understand why your doctor would think it's OK for travel but not for home use. If it's as effective as CPAP for you, which could only be established by a sleep study, it should be equally OK to use it at home as when traveling. If it's less effective than CPAP, then he's basically making the decision for you that convenience outweighs its decreased efficacy. Given that he hasn't done a sleep study of you on Provent, it seems there's no basis for his preference one way or the other.
Of course there is a trade-off between convenience and efficacy. Why not? I make trade-offs between life-and-death safety and convenience all the time, and quite often make them in favor of convenience.
In a couple of days, I'm going to fly to London, just because I enjoy going to museums etc. and want to see some relatives. Obviously, there is some risk involved - not just the relatively safe activity of long distance air travel on a scheduled airline, but really dangerous things like road travel between Heathrow Airport and central London, and crossing roads in a very congested city. Later today I plan to drive to some shops. I know perfectly well that driving on California freeways involves a significant risk of serious injury or death, and it would be safer to do without some non-essential but nice-to-have items, or arrange to have them delivered. It is more convenient for me to go shopping.
I see no reason to treat convenience as having zero value when it comes to my sleep apnea treatment.
My sleep doctor did not discuss his reasoning, so I don't know the criteria he used. However, no matter how helpful I have found this group on issues of living with sleep apnea, for specific medical advice on my individual treatment I do prefer a qualified specialist who had reviewed my sleep study, the downloaded data from my APAP, and my general medical history.