Fighting the oxygen wars...

[Guest guest]

Fighting the oxygen wars…

I was put on oxygen about 5 months ago, and was given a concentrator

plus 6 portable bottles, which weigh about 12 pounds each. I hated

the weight of the portable bottles. This was $397.50 per

month and for reasons that don't matter now, wasn't turned in to

insurance.

My doctor suggested the Helios liquid oxygen. These tanks are HUGE!!

It looks like I have a still in my bedroom – no such luck. I was told

by the technician that whenever I was not using the oxygen I had to

turn it off. Walking back into my bedroom, turning it off,

then walking back to wherever I had been in the house immediately

brought me to the point of needing the oxygen again! Also, while the

portable units (and I've now had three different ones…same model,

just different actual units) are smaller and lighter, the amount of

time they last is unpredictable.

The technician has watched me fill them over and over and says

that I do it correctly. They exhaust in varying times from 40 minutes

to 1 hour and 50 minutes, regardless of whether I'm using them or

not. Even if I had two of them, it wouldn't help because they exhaust

even without use.

This liquid oxygen system is $575 per month and Blue Cross/Blue

Shield says I have to pay half. I also have a nebulizer, for which

BC/BS says I have to pay $70 per month. So they want me to pay a

total of more than $300/month.

The concentrator blows continuously, rather than just when I inhale.

As a result, I'm not able to use it at night (maybe I'm just not

desperate enough yet) because I've had to throw away two down pillows

and any number of pillow cases because of severe nosebleeds. What is

the doohickey (highly technical word) called which makes it work only

when you inhale?

I'm on 5 liters of oxygen, and am going to have to switch to

something else soon, because both the concentrator and the liquid

tanks only go to 5 liters.

Does anyone have any suggestions?