French Nurse Expert in Apnea's Treatment, don't understand..

[Huh?]

do you think some peoples with less time than you could pay for a expert advice

You are asking the wrong people!

All of the regular members of this forum are very self-sufficient people who are capable of learning and taking care of themselves. They also know this is the way to get the best therapy.

Find some dummies to ask. Dummies with money to spare.

[Julie]

But you asked if FRENCH people would pay... and we're based in N. America while YOU'RE in France! Why ask us if French people would pay?

[chunkyfrog]

Experience?
How about HUNDREDS of patients, sleeping with this equipment, every night,
---some since before 2004? I would dare any "professional" to even come CLOSE,
Experience, yes, we have a full house, several, in fact.
Few doctors, nurses or DME's are as totally IMMERSED in apnea as many here.
And practically NONE for as long as some.
It's nice to attend school, get a certificate, and receive an income,
BUT THAT DOES NOT MAKE AN EXPERT.

[Julie]

You said you wanted advice... we have given you what you asked for but you don't accept it and want to argue. That's not going to get you very far.

[BlackSpinner]

Good luck getting people to pay for what we provide free. And a humidifier is not the answer to mouth breathing even if it helps with some patients.

You are wrong Julie on both accounts.

The majority of people I know on cpap have not been here even though I refer them to this forum when they have issues. Many of them don't even have computers and those that do are barely capable of reading their email. Even those that work in software don't come here because they KNOW that their doctor/DME knows best and the internet is not to be trusted.

[Frenchy Nurse]

OK OK OK . . .

I'm in Miami For Hollidays, I talk with a lawyer and doctors . . .

And I understood here it's really different form of healthcare . . .

I would like to ask just to know . . .

I know one thing, you are really concervator . . . and Judge me . . .

I ask you, and you judge me without know . . .

Clap clap clap

[bwexler]

I consider myself fairly knowledgeable about PAP therapy after more than 6 years on the hose.
I have seen a variety of sleep doctors. I still feel I get better advice here than I do from many of the professionals.
There are a few doctors and RTs and DMEs who contribute here, but the hose heads who choose to study apnea and it's treatment in depth generally give better more effective advice than the pros.
We have thousands of members and dozens of self educated experts. I find getting multiple opinions and blending them together, offers the best solutions for me.

[chunkyfrog]

The best doctors are smart enough to recognize they do not know everything;
and humble enough to realize that the patient (or a family member) is he ultimate caregiver.
Arrogance in a free market results in an empty waiting room.
Enjoy all that quiet.

[CowFish]

...
I have seen a variety of sleep doctors. I still feel I get better advice here than I do from many of the professionals.
There are a few doctors and RTs and DMEs who contribute here, but the hose heads who choose to study apnea and it's treatment in depth generally give better more effective advice than the pros.
We have thousands of members and dozens of self educated experts. I find getting multiple opinions and blending them together, offers the best solutions for me.

+1

I saw one sleep tech who encouraged me to continue getting help from cpaptalk.com. She asked me to come to a support group (A.W.A.K.E.) meeting to speak to other patients about using cpaptalk.com. Her boss, the sleep doctor, was present at the meeting and was supportive.

I know one thing, you are really concervator . . . and Judge me . . .

I ask you, and you judge me without know . . .

First time using an internet public forum?

[leptic]

Hi all,

I currently live in Quebec, Canada's watered down version of France, and am going to make a few provocative statements. I have also lived in France (Région Pas de Calais) so have some experience in these matters .

• 1) Frenchy Nurse is actually right. French healthcare downright rocks. Anyone wondering why Frenchy Nurse is horrified at why we have to resort to internet forums should google 'French Healthcare System'. For patients and citizens, it is simply awesome. It is probably not as good to be a doctor in France as in the USA or Canada, but it is a hell of a lot better to be a patient there (for the vast majority; those who don't need proton-beam therapy or other 'big medicine' toys). Home visits by MDs in little government-issued cars are taken for granted. There was a great news documentary on this on 20/20 (or something like that) and anyone interested should be able to google it pretty readily.
  
  2) This forum downright rocks. In the North American system, we do have access to excellent healthcare resources. However, it is very different from the situation in France. The per-capita number of physicians is 3/1000 in France and only about 2/1000 in Canada and the USA. Self-education and patient advocacy have become very important skills here, and while the internet is filled with crap it is also filled with incredible resources. People living in this environment had better develop the ability to critically evaluate information, and they do. I am a research scientist by profession, and can tell you that the peer-reviewed medical literature is getting nearly as filled with crap as the internet (a topic for another post).

Unfortunately, despite his/her great intentions, Frenchy Nurse is not going to change the US healthcare system overnight. I really wish that Quebec could deliver 25% of what France can in healthcare, but it ain't gonna happen. So we are left/blessed with 'hacking health' initiatives like cpaptalk.com.

Frenchy Nurse: bon séjour à Miami - peut-être le vin ne sera pas aussi bon qu’en France mais l’ambiance est quand même incomparable là-bas. Si jamais vous vous trouvez au Québec, laissez-moi savoir parce que j’ai vraiment besoin d’une experte en apnée. Désole de mon français - je suis américain d’origine.

[leptic]

Some translations:

I know one thing, you are really concervator . . . and Judge me . . .

Concervator = politically conservative

Clap clap clap

French sarcasm - don't take this personally.

[chunkyfrog]

As someone stuck in the center of CUSA, I have no choice but to take what I can get,
and do the rest for myself. Major props to the wise people on cpaptalk,
and especially to the Goodmans for providing the bandwidth.
And a very happy birthday to Johnny, whose birthday is Friday, June 3rd--same as mine.

[jnk...]

My take is that none of the responses were meant to judge--they were meant to inform.

Now it may be that the arrangement in France, for all economic levels, is for every single patient diagnosed with OSA to receive, within a few days, several hours of individualized support in making PAP therapy work for him/her. If so, I applaud that aspect of a form of healthcare I have not witnessed with my own eyes.

But please understand that in view of the fact that such help is rarely, if ever, available to those of low-to-moderate economic station in the US (at least, that I have seen), then the cpaptalk type of patient-to-patient hints and observations can make for some highly experienced patient advocates who volunteer time on the internet to be of assistance to fellow patients.

It has been my experience that advice from someone who is not personally using the therapy is usually flawed and based on INEXPERIENCE.

Part of the problem, in my opinion, is that many employees of the so-called DMEs in the US are uninformed crutch salesmen who have a hard time using a cash register with any accuracy, let alone figuring out the purpose and nuances of mechanical/electrical medical equipment. The settings are entered by a Respiratory Therapist who may have good knowledge of breathing and the machinery that support it, but may have little to no useful education about sleep. That leaves on the, uh, team, the sleep doc who is often way too busy to keep up with masks and comfort settings that make the therapy workable for patients with persistent problems using the therapy.

So that leaves us, fellow patients, helping one another.

I guess we could all move to France. What is the net income of professional internet surfers over there?--I mean, after taxes?

And please don't worry about your English. Unlike French-speakers, no one anywhere even attempts to speak/type English correctly--unless it will affect one's final grade at the end of the term.

[Frenchy Nurse]

Thx Leptic ! Your french is excelent ! Better as my english

You Saw the difficulty about to understand each others.

I can't imagine in my culture to let patient do most of thing and educate by theirself.

And America use to do that, don't trust in people who work to do a REAL follow up to the patients caus they never heard about that only by DME who are more sellers than therapyst . . .

I think there is good things and bad things in both way . . .

Thanks all to answer to my questions.

[jnk...]

. . . the peer-reviewed medical literature is getting nearly as filled with crap as the internet (a topic for another post). . .

Well said. I look forward to the post. I hope you start a thread on it, if you feel like it.