DoriC wrote:In what way is referring to "old people who are not eager to learn" not offensive?? I bet Carbonman, jnk, Dreamstalker can explain it in a way that you might or then again, might not understand! Guess what, I'm done with this, it's a lovely spring day and we're going outside to start our gardening. It's hard work but it keeps us young and beautiful!
Mike,
You are unintentionally (I hope) stepping on some toes with your comments, but please understand that you are very welcome here. It is only that it naturally ruffles some feathers when someone comes to the forum and proclaims expert status and starts throwing generalizations around that touch on people's lives here in a very real way, however well-intentioned your thoughts.
Please understand too, that a number of professionals post here, but they respect the diversity of backgrounds, ages, and PAP-therapy experience. You may note that some members, for example, have been here for several years. I have learned much from them because of their long years of experience reading hundreds, if not thousands, of posts from others about masks, data, etc. They are experts in their own right, and have experience you could learn a lot from. I'm glad you recognize that fact.
I respect that you came to this forum and expressed curiosity about what we were talking about. That shows modesty. You said you had a couple of questions. And then you started participating and trying to add your input based on your experience. That is appreciated. But the ringer you are going through is not BECAUSE you are a DME employee. It is because you are making very broad statements of opinion, which you are welcome to do, but which will be challenged despite your view of how experienced you are with all things CPAP related.
You seem like a really nice guy who genuinely wants to help. As a friendly suggestion, I would suggest you try not to say anything to embarrass yourself as you start out learning here. Just play it low key for a few days. That seems, from my short time being here (10 months) to be the problem with what usually happens when DME people stop by here to post. They find that we don't all sit down peacefully at their feet to learn from them to drink in everything they say, then they keep talking about how experienced they are and why we should all listen to them more closely, but then they start to figure out what a vast knowledge-base this forum actually represents, and it scares them away. They prefer being the big fish in the pond of their clients instead of being a smaller fish here where there are hundreds of amazingly informed CPAP users who have been learning this stuff for years, some decades, and who tend to see through smoke and mirrors rather quickly.
I hope you hear that in the spirit intended. Because my point is that you may learn from how you are stepping on toes, but you are still very, very welcome here, if you maintain a thick enough skin to find where and how you can use your experience and opinions to do the most good in this particular forum as you continue to learn, like the rest of us.
jeff
