CPAPtalk.com

Quote "This is a wild guess, but I seriously doubt that more than a third of one percent of USA cpap patients have ever seen or heard of this site, or any cpap forum."

I wonder how this percentage compares with the percentage of folks who become informed about and become active in the management of their medical issues.

I have mentioned this before, but when I asked my sleep doc some questions about my situation, he said "If you have done enough reading that you can ask questions like this, you have too much time on your hands." and didn't answer my question. Clearly, there some docs out there who don't want their patients to be informed about their medical conditions. I sincerely hope that these docs are in the minority.

When I first picked up my mask, the supplier representative said "There's a lot of stuff out there on the Internet; please let us give you advice before you start buying things". This is good counsel, so far as it goes. As anyone knows who surfs the 'Net regularly (and many of us do), there is a lot of crap out there. Most Internet users do not know how to evaluate the credibility of the information that appears on web pages, nor how to evaluate the honesty and integrity of the site owners. So, caution is always a good thing when seeking medical information and advice through Google (or whatever). This may account for the reticence of professionals to say anything that would encourage self-diagnosis or self-treatment (even though that may in the end be what works best for an individual). Same applies to legal advice on the 'Net. However, there is a difference between the "official" content of a site, and an associated chat forum, within which most participants do not have a produce to sell, and freely admit that what works for them may not work for others. The key thing is listening to the experience of others, and then combining that with (if you have one) a reliable service provider. The mere fact that a particular product is a miracle for one user and a disaster for another is very instructive. There is, in other words, no silver bullet.

Oh, and I'm still looking for the perfect mask.....