Brick machine, no health insurance - what else can I DO?

[BlackSpinner]

Black Shampoo, have you noticed this French Woman who says to ignore assholes?

Wrong again Avi. I am not French. I can speak it along with English and Dutch. And for $595 plus shipping you can buy the sculpture in the image.

I don't usually turn people to stone but when I do I turn them into gravel

[nanwilson]

It seems to me that you are entrenched in a "poor me" syndrome and that is giving you a bad attitude problem. Do you really think that you are the youngest, no insurance, no job, sold a brick patients to come here and get help. You are among a big number of patients ........
We have kids ages 11 to 16 and young adults ... that beats you.
We have patients with no insurance - MANY of us - me included.
No job, lots of folks here have lost their job.
Sold a brick... tons of us again. Me included, I had to pay $1600 for a brick out of my pocket, and my pockets are pretty damn poor.
You see, you are not alone, you have been given many good ideas on how to either cope with what you have or get a cheaper auto. But, somehow you don't want the advice you have been given, nor do you want some of our help. Your words that "you don't want to hear from any senior citizens" bodes well for your attitude that needs some adjustment.
I might be a poor senior citizen, but some how I now have an auto machine that I only paid $80 for from another member here .. it was used but it sure works just fine and the price was right. Patience and perseverance are the keys to successful therapy, you need to dial down and take a breather... if you can't put up with the brick, then take some suggestions from the "senior citizens" and go to craigs list, secondwind, or here, there are several people here that sell used and new machines.
Best advice you are going to get is right here on this forum, we have been there, done that and got the t-shirt , but somehow we get the job done ... one problem at a time.
Good luck
Nan

[49er]

Wow Nan, I don't understand the anger behind your post. Black Shampoo was simply expressing normal feelings of grief that occur due to a job loss, particularly when she is having a hard time functioning due to lack of good quality sleep. I fail to see how that translates as having a bad attitude.

By the way, I don't see where she said she didn't want to hear from senior citizens in this thread or the other posts she has written. Am I missing something?

49er

It seems to me that you are entrenched in a "poor me" syndrome and that is giving you a bad attitude problem. Do you really think that you are the youngest, no insurance, no job, sold a brick patients to come here and get help. You are among a big number of patients ........
We have kids ages 11 to 16 and young adults ... that beats you.
We have patients with no insurance - MANY of us - me included.
No job, lots of folks here have lost their job.
Sold a brick... tons of us again. Me included, I had to pay $1600 for a brick out of my pocket, and my pockets are pretty damn poor.
You see, you are not alone, you have been given many good ideas on how to either cope with what you have or get a cheaper auto. But, somehow you don't want the advice you have been given, nor do you want some of our help. Your words that "you don't want to hear from any senior citizens" bodes well for your attitude that needs some adjustment.
I might be a poor senior citizen, but some how I now have an auto machine that I only paid $80 for from another member here .. it was used but it sure works just fine and the price was right. Patience and perseverance are the keys to successful therapy, you need to dial down and take a breather... if you can't put up with the brick, then take some suggestions from the "senior citizens" and go to craigs list, secondwind, or here, there are several people here that sell used and new machines.
Best advice you are going to get is right here on this forum, we have been there, done that and got the t-shirt , but somehow we get the job done ... one problem at a time.
Good luck
Nan

[nanwilson]

Wow Nan, I don't understand the anger behind your post. Black Shampoo was simply expressing normal feelings of grief that occur due to a job loss, particularly when she is having a hard time functioning due to lack of good quality sleep. I fail to see how that translates as having a bad attitude.

By the way, I don't see where she said she didn't want to hear from senior citizens in this thread or the other posts she has written. Am I missing something?

49er

It seems to me that you are entrenched in a "poor me" syndrome and that is giving you a bad attitude problem. Do you really think that you are the youngest, no insurance, no job, sold a brick patients to come here and get help. You are among a big number of patients ........
We have kids ages 11 to 16 and young adults ... that beats you.
We have patients with no insurance - MANY of us - me included.
No job, lots of folks here have lost their job.
Sold a brick... tons of us again. Me included, I had to pay $1600 for a brick out of my pocket, and my pockets are pretty damn poor.
You see, you are not alone, you have been given many good ideas on how to either cope with what you have or get a cheaper auto. But, somehow you don't want the advice you have been given, nor do you want some of our help. Your words that "you don't want to hear from any senior citizens" bodes well for your attitude that needs some adjustment.
I might be a poor senior citizen, but some how I now have an auto machine that I only paid $80 for from another member here .. it was used but it sure works just fine and the price was right. Patience and perseverance are the keys to successful therapy, you need to dial down and take a breather... if you can't put up with the brick, then take some suggestions from the "senior citizens" and go to craigs list, secondwind, or here, there are several people here that sell used and new machines.
Best advice you are going to get is right here on this forum, we have been there, done that and got the t-shirt , but somehow we get the job done ... one problem at a time.
Good luck
Nan

49er.. you translate tough love and my opinion into "anger"... for shame. As to the words senior citizens, I was being nice, he/she called us older and in our twilight years in the other thread concerning cancer. I seem to have rubbed you the wrong way, sometimes things (and in my opinion) need to be said to try and bump the poster into a better frame of mind. A better frame of mind would perhaps make him/her listen to some of the excellent advice that has been given and slowly fix things that need fixing to get more and better relief from his/her therapy.. Having a rant or being super frustrated is fine, but taking a big breath and getting going with some of the suggestions is even better..... my opinion only, not anger, I don't get angry.
Nan

[caffeinatedcfo]

When I look at Kate's link, I see that you could sell there the S9 Escape and buy an S9 Elite for an addition of $40:
http://secondwindcpap.com/

Gently Used ResMed S9 Escape and Accessories $329
Gently Used ResMed S9 Elite and Accessories $369

I'd be interested in how you make out with this info, although if you waited it may be gone??? What I hear repeated through out is TAKE BACK YOUR LIFE MAN!

[Pugsy]

Avi didn't offer the used machine idea.
Edit...Kate offered it here and I offered same in another thread.
Don't give him credit for something he didn't do.
What Avi said wasn't the least bit helpful and boarded on dangerous.
If living with an AHI of 10 is so great then why in the hell did he work so hard to get his AHI reduced to the point that he consistently posts multiple images of his reports showing how "perfect" his therapy is now.
His AHI was 10 to 12 for nearly a year...why did he even bother to try to fix it..but he bothered so he doesn't practice what he preaches.

[49er1]

Wow Nan, I don't understand the anger behind your post. Black Shampoo was simply expressing normal feelings of grief that occur due to a job loss, particularly when she is having a hard time functioning due to lack of good quality sleep. I fail to see how that translates as having a bad attitude.

By the way, I don't see where she said she didn't want to hear from senior citizens in this thread or the other posts she has written. Am I missing something?

49er

It seems to me that you are entrenched in a "poor me" syndrome and that is giving you a bad attitude problem. Do you really think that you are the youngest, no insurance, no job, sold a brick patients to come here and get help. You are among a big number of patients ........
We have kids ages 11 to 16 and young adults ... that beats you.
We have patients with no insurance - MANY of us - me included.
No job, lots of folks here have lost their job.
Sold a brick... tons of us again. Me included, I had to pay $1600 for a brick out of my pocket, and my pockets are pretty damn poor.
You see, you are not alone, you have been given many good ideas on how to either cope with what you have or get a cheaper auto. But, somehow you don't want the advice you have been given, nor do you want some of our help. Your words that "you don't want to hear from any senior citizens" bodes well for your attitude that needs some adjustment.
I might be a poor senior citizen, but some how I now have an auto machine that I only paid $80 for from another member here .. it was used but it sure works just fine and the price was right. Patience and perseverance are the keys to successful therapy, you need to dial down and take a breather... if you can't put up with the brick, then take some suggestions from the "senior citizens" and go to craigs list, secondwind, or here, there are several people here that sell used and new machines.
Best advice you are going to get is right here on this forum, we have been there, done that and got the t-shirt , but somehow we get the job done ... one problem at a time.
Good luck
Nan

49er.. you translate tough love and my opinion into "anger"... for shame. As to the words senior citizens, I was being nice, he/she called us older and in our twilight years in the other thread concerning cancer. I seem to have rubbed you the wrong way, sometimes things (and in my opinion) need to be said to try and bump the poster into a better frame of mind. A better frame of mind would perhaps make him/her listen to some of the excellent advice that has been given and slowly fix things that need fixing to get more and better relief from his/her therapy.. Having a rant or being super frustrated is fine, but taking a big breath and getting going with some of the suggestions is even better..... my opinion only, not anger, I don't get angry.
Nan

Nan, my apologies as I definitely mislabeled your post as anger. I will reread the cancer post again as I missed that.

I still disagree with you about providing tough love. But I am sure that is no surprise to you.

49er

[Judge Nap]

It seems to me that you are entrenched in a "poor me" syndrome and that is giving you a bad attitude problem. Do you really think that you are the youngest, no insurance, no job, sold a brick patients to come here and get help. You are among a big number of patients ........
We have kids ages 11 to 16 and young adults ... that beats you.
We have patients with no insurance - MANY of us - me included.
No job, lots of folks here have lost their job.
Sold a brick... tons of us again. Me included, I had to pay $1600 for a brick out of my pocket, and my pockets are pretty damn poor.
You see, you are not alone, you have been given many good ideas on how to either cope with what you have or get a cheaper auto. But, somehow you don't want the advice you have been given, nor do you want some of our help. Your words that "you don't want to hear from any senior citizens" bodes well for your attitude that needs some adjustment.
I might be a poor senior citizen, but some how I now have an auto machine that I only paid $80 for from another member here .. it was used but it sure works just fine and the price was right. Patience and perseverance are the keys to successful therapy, you need to dial down and take a breather... if you can't put up with the brick, then take some suggestions from the "senior citizens" and go to craigs list, secondwind, or here, there are several people here that sell used and new machines.
Best advice you are going to get is right here on this forum, we have been there, done that and got the t-shirt , but somehow we get the job done ... one problem at a time.
Good luck
Nan

I wanted to say something but you said it much better than I would have. Thank you.

Kudos to you for taking full control of your own situation.

[hyperlexis]

Well, 1.) People for decades have been surviving pretty well on straight CPAP brick machines. As long as you got a titration study, that is. If you bought a brick machine at a garage sale, then that's another story.

2.) Trying to correlate and adjust things using a blood oxygen monitor will be very difficult and will cost you money anyway.

3.) You may simply need to just continue using your machine as-is until you find a job with insurance or just pay for a better machine that autoadjusts, etc. Even if you don't get data out of it, at least an auto machine is better than nothing. Ideally get an auto machine with data. You can find a lot of cheap old auto machines on Craigslist, etc.

4.) Some online vendors are also selling these cheap new Chinese APAP machines, for almost as much as an older, high-end used ResMed or PR auto. Quality and effectiveness, who knows, but they are at least new products, and FDA certified.

5.) If you can, Secondwind CPAP may be the best route for a discounted reconditioned, warranted model from PR or ResMed, Fisher Paykel, DeVilbiss, etc.. Or there is the apnea charity organization (I'm sorry I forgot the name) that you can try and get a free newer unit from.

6.) Alternately, you could also try to: 1.) Get onto Medicaid, or 2.) Buy a private individual health insurance policy for far, far less than the COBRA premiums from your prior employer.

[Kate M]

Avi didn't offer the used machine idea. I did.
Don't give him credit for something he didn't do.

To be cautiously fair... At the same time you were making the suggestion on the pulse ox thread, I was making the same suggestion on this thread. Avi went one step further and pointed out that he could SELL his own machine and therefore maybe get the full data machine upgrade for $40 after all that. It doesn't really matter, but the conversation was happening on two threads at exactly the same time.

[Pugsy]

To be cautiously fair... At the same time you were making the suggestion on the pulse ox thread, I was making the same suggestion on this thread. Avi went one step further and pointed out that he could SELL his own machine and therefore maybe get the full data machine upgrade for $40 after all that. It doesn't really matter, but the conversation was happening on two threads at exactly the same time.

My point was that Avi did NOT make the suggestion in this thread or anywhere else. He was being his usual ass in this thread.

Forum quotes sometimes get misconstrued and makes it look like someone said something they didn't.
That's what happened here.

And yes...I did make it in the other thread...and you made it here.. I got lost where I made it.
Avi's response here was his typical ugly self and I just had to stick my foot in it. Sorry...originally I had let it slide.
I will edit my error and give credit where credit is due.

[Black Shampoo]

There are some serious headcases on this board, man. Is this what sleep dep does to people?

[Black Shampoo]

He is not getting benefit from his cpap , how in hell do you expect hm to find another job while he feels like crap. Go and crawl back under your rock.

He was holding down a six-figure job and lost it through no fault of his own. He has not said he does not feel capable of finding another job.

I've never said I don't feel capable of finding another job - no idea where this is coming from. I'm actively interviewing for new jobs.

[Samaniego]

[quote=Black Shampoo]There are some serious headcases on this board, man. Is this what sleep dep does to people?[quote]

The people help so very much but can they only write help. YOU have to take action. I hope you will act well for yourself.

[SleepyonMagnoliaSt]

There are some serious headcases on this board, man. Is this what sleep dep does to people?

The people help so very much but can they only write help. YOU have to take action. I hope you will act well for yourself.

Definitely. Be your own advocate. Don't take no from anyone and find a way to fix the situation