Local Support Group Meeting

Covenant HealthCare and VNA of Saginaw, Michigan's apnea support group had their bi-monthly apnea support group meeting tonight. These meetings just seem to be getting better and better. As usual I forgot about it until the last minute and flew outta the house w/o the flyers I was going to distribute. *sigh*

They had a Cardiologist as a guest speaker and he was excellent - and refreshing!! He came right out and said we as patients HAVE to speak up, HAVE to start taking an active part in our own health care, HAVE to push our doctors and question our doctors. Plus his presentation on the link between OSA and heart and arteries, etc. was excellent. A few slides, a light discussion of his presentation w/encouragement to ask questions at any time during the short presentation and then plenty of question and answer time afterwards.

The Resmed Rep was there w/an S8 w/Humidaire 3i and an S8 w/o and lots of masks on heads and a Tube Buddy as well as literature and one on one gabbing w/the group. (The Tube Buddy was quite nice and substantial, pretty shade of like a Royal Blue).

The Respironics Rep was there as well along with an M Series and lots of masks on heads and literature. He's very personable and very helpful. Leave it to me to get on well w/the Respironics Rep and mebbe not so well w/the Resmed Rep. Or maybe the Respironics Rep is just a more outgoing type of person.

It looks like they might be planning a Mask Fitting Session at one of the meetings later in the year. They had some really nice prizes for their drawings again. I didn't win anything this time. *sigh*

Drawings with prizes, mask fittings and machines to show off? Ok when and where are these meetings? I have only been to one meeting here and that's because I kept calling to ask about it was just myself and another guy. If we had meeting half as good as that we would have many people there.

It takes a while for them to get in the swing of things so to speak and a while to build up a group. Actually a "group" of two might not be so bad if you can have that one on one w/an RT or RPSGT!!! The first of our meetings I went to were kinda dry and not so many "members" and not so much going on. Like I said it takes a while for them to get in the swing of things and its hard w/a mixed group of those who don't know much, like REALLY don't know much, don't know what brand and model CPAP, don't know what mask, don't know what their pressure is ... and then some others who have spent time at cpaptalk or TAS or apneasupport and have at least SOME savvy about their therapy and equipment. Not an easy mixture to cater to.