A Night in Hospital with CPAP

imo, not all hospitals are the same. but you can't expect them to carry the myriad of CPAP masks available on the market. if you're in a respiratory distress they could carry you to their surgical ICU unit, insert a tube into your wind pipe (not necessarily being intubated) and put you on one of their ventilators. They do these things daily. as a past hospital volunteer I am sure that you could ask a volunteer there to take a taxi to your house and bring you your CPAP gear. give him/her the key and promise to pay the expenses. but get an ok from the head nurse beforehand.

RocketGirl, best wishes for your continued health.

By way of humor, here is a story from my college years. I got a job as an orderly in an intensive care wing for mostly heart patients one summer, thanks to a recommendation from my nursing friends. I learned a huge amount that summer. I did a lot of wiring heart monitors and prepped a lot of people for surgery.

So, later that fall, I had gone back to graduate school; I needed surgery. The orderly comes in and tells me they have ordered a three liter enema as part of the prep. I tell him, 'no way in any universe, would anyone order a three liter enema!' I point out that I had worked in that very same hospital and knew that the usual amount was a liter. He was adamant. So, I bargained him down to a liter; three times. The nurse comes in to check on me during number three. I explain the predicament, now a moot point. She rolls her eyes and says, "I told him, a liter, in thirds".

WOW um man that was just TMI = TO MUCH INFO ! Mr. Bill

I would have told him sure after he did it first.

My two cents.

It comes as a shock to us at first that the med community knows less then we do on MANY subjects. We're in the one percent club here, analyzing sleep data specifically. Usuualy you might get a person or two who "does the cpap thing" but they dont know anyting about it other than it helps them.

ER Doctors in general roll their eyes at:........autoimmune diseases, people who genuinely need prescription meds to survive, apneas, etc. They also sniff their noses at naturopathic cures.

Sleeep docs are not much different in the sense that they want you OUT of their offices within a few minutes. Its the bottom line. Any "Problems" are hindrances to the almighty dollar.

Im sorry you didnth have anyone to help you. I would have done it myself if we were friends.

Youre doing the best thing which is coming to the REAL cadre of experts right here. The meeting of heads is probably the highest
solution possibilitiy available anywhere.

hades161 wrote:Sorry but my machine is never Filthy and if I found that I couldn't use my Equipment I would insist on leaving ASAP and be transferred or released to a different hospital. To me it seems as though its just one more thing they will want to charge you for.

There also is no way to know what hospital gear has been exposed too. With my gear its my germs from my controlled environment. I know only I have used it, I know who has touched it, and I know my gear works. With 80,000 deaths a year in Hospitals from Nosocomial Infections alone ( http://silver.neep.wisc.edu/~lakes/iatrogenic.pdf ) I don't think my gear is more risky then hospital gear and they wouldn't even have to touch it as I would prefer them NOT too.

1. The hose, mask, is all brand new for each patient. (yes they would charge for this as supplies)
2. All equipment is sterilized far more efficiently then you could ever do.
3. This PROTECTS patients, the hospital has control over what is on the floor.
4. Yes YOUR machine may not be filthy, BUT what about the dude in the room next to you???
5. Using your logic about the equipment are you going to bring your own Bed, operating instruments, ETC

When my husband had back surgery, the hospital allowed him to use his own machine. In fact, they were very pleased that he brought it. The RT had to check it before it could be set up. The RT also filled it with distilled water.

I suppose you could take yours and if they let you use it, great. If they don't, you will have to use their machines. I'm not sure that they can manage a mask fitting though, since the sleep tech at the hospital-affiliated sleep lab tried to use nasal pillows too sizes too large for me and when I said that they hurt my nose, he said "We don't want them to leak." If a so-called sleep technician can't fit a CPAP mask, what hope do regular staff have?

At least if you have your machine or script, they can get the setting even if they won't let you use it.

I would be less worried about a "dirty" personal CPAP than the scores of filthy shoes that cross the floors every day. Ever swabbed and plated the bottom of a shoe?

RocketGirl wrote:... But also overall, I really want to say that our little home machines with our own masks, fitted to us, are so much preferable to what the hospital can provide. I know it's been advocated in other threads to take your own equipment. My circumstances meant I landed there without my machine, but for anyone who can: definitely, positively, take your own equipment with you if at all possible.

I hope you are back home now and that the pain and its causes have resolved.

Though I never thought about it before, somehow I doubt most hospitals are going to have the most current cpap machines. I wonder how many techs really know enough to set the pressure properly, let alone the mask, as you have seen in your excursion. Something tells me most people get 'set' with 4/20 on auto...

Another good thing to do is bring your cpap with you whenever you travel more than an hour or two from where you live. If you can't afford a medic alert band or dog tag, you can put an ICE card in your wallet or purse where ER techs can easily find it with all your meds and cpap settings. Specify everything.

Now I'm thinking about putting my spare comfortgel full face mask in my car--keeping it there-just in case.
Now to find a nice case for it. . .
--and hubby's spare, too!

My wife's an RN in Recovery and PACU (Post Anesthesia Care Unit). She says she sees patients coming through with their own CPAP machines all the time.

jmcanzo wrote:

hades161 wrote:Sorry but my machine is never Filthy and if I found that I couldn't use my Equipment I would insist on leaving ASAP and be transferred or released to a different hospital. To me it seems as though its just one more thing they will want to charge you for.

There also is no way to know what hospital gear has been exposed too. With my gear its my germs from my controlled environment. I know only I have used it, I know who has touched it, and I know my gear works. With 80,000 deaths a year in Hospitals from Nosocomial Infections alone ( http://silver.neep.wisc.edu/~lakes/iatrogenic.pdf ) I don't think my gear is more risky then hospital gear and they wouldn't even have to touch it as I would prefer them NOT too.

1. The hose, mask, is all brand new for each patient. (yes they would charge for this as supplies)
2. All equipment is sterilized far more efficiently then you could ever do.
3. This PROTECTS patients, the hospital has control over what is on the floor.
4. Yes YOUR machine may not be filthy, BUT what about the dude in the room next to you???
5. Using your logic about the equipment are you going to bring your own Bed, operating instruments, ETC

If I could, I would bring my own operating gear etc, any step I could do to limit the risk of medical error to myself, I would take. No the policy does not protect patients, it adds profits, as for the guy next to me he is there because the hospital PUT him there again for PROFIT and if a nurse/person does touch the gear? shouldn't they be washing their hands after anyway? Before going on to the next patient? Luckily, I live in an area where they feel a room per patient is best to stop cross contamination and the population supports this. And if hospitals WERE as sterilized as one would wish for then 80,000 deaths a year from medical error infections wouldn't happen. Also, I have used a throw away hospital mask and tbh they are crap.

Get over your pride in the medical system it's the 3rd to 4th leading cause of death in the US. We pay the most for almost the worse care or the worst in most metrics. The only people that pay for your "pride" is your patients. Normally with their death. That's why the best policy is to get in to a hospital, get your treatment, and GET OUT ASAP and recover at home to avoid being exposed the human error factor. I could see a policy of Inspecting the gear for obvious signs of growth and cleanliness (IE smoker units and saying no) but out right saying no go, is bull.

You seem to care a lot and that is great Kudos to you but maybe the guy next to you doesn't?

chunkyfrog wrote:Now I'm thinking about putting my spare comfortgel full face mask in my car--keeping it there-just in case.
Now to find a nice case for it. . .
--and hubby's spare, too!

Froggy: get a nice-thick freezer bag. That should work. Sheriff

I began this thread with an account of my unexpected sojourn last weekend in the ER and then hospital with chest pain. This week involved various pokings and proddings to find out why, and I had a cardiac stress test yesterday.

I did not have a full-fledged heart attack, but I did have the precursor. It was unstable angina, and there is damage to my heart that was not there when I had a perfectly healthy baseline stress test in 2010. The cardiologist thinks that there is a partial blockage of one of the cardiac arteries.

This annoys me greatly, since I have none of the usual risk factors except family history, a stressful job, and (wait for it...) sleep apnea. I exercise, and I have been a vegetarian for about 30 years. My blood pressure is always on the low side, usually 110/65, and my cholesterol hovers at 145 - never, ever in my life has it been high, and it is still not high.

The cardiologist says that the stress of my job is most likely the main factor, but the apnea is clearly in there too. I have used my cpap all night, every night, since I first got it. But I had to fight hard to get a sleep study, and I only got the machine in October. Sleepyhead tells me that I've masked up for 131 days straight. But before that, there were maybe 20 or 30 years of undiagnosed and untreated apnea. There's no way to definitively say one thing causes another in a case like this, but it is pretty easy to connect the dots.

I am now scheduled for a cardiac catheterization this week. If they find blockage, they will do an immediate angioplasty and stenting of the artery. If they find more than they bargained for, then there may be more invasive procedures to come.

My instructions are to remain very quiet, avoid exercise, and avoid anything stressful until this is all over (hah!). The Rocket Girl is thoroughly grounded for now.

So that is chapter two of the story. I had counted my blessings and thought that I got my cpap in time to stave off these kinds of problems, but that is not the case. I am grateful that I got the warning shot over the bow, and not the full-fledged myocardial infarction.

Those of you who are flirting with non-compliance might want to think hard about the consequences. They are never as far away as you think they are.

RG... I've been following your thread and I can't tell you how sorry I am to hear this. Seems you are doing everything right... makes little sense I know. Positive thoughts going out to you for the less invasive procedure.

I am going in on Tuesday for a scope of my knee. The surgery center told me to bring my CPAP. I will pack it myself and bring it along.

RocketGirl, I'm wishing you the least damage to your heart possible, and hope you will not have to have anything more invasive than the stent.

Please let us know how you're doing. We'll be thinking about you and wishing you the best.

Debbie