4 weeks may not be enough time. In my experience I had to have my PCP contact the sleep center to set up a sleep study, and that took some time. But even after the study it was months before they were able to get me a BiPAP machine.
As far as taking it as luggage, a CPAP doesn’t count towards your carry on limit on a plane. Normally you’re limited to 2 carry ons, but a CPAP is considered a ‘free’ carry on so you can still take 2 other carry ons. Your best bet is to use the carrying case the CPAP comes with and just carrying it in that through the airport rather than mixing it in with your regular luggage.
When I went on a cruise with my dad, he had no problem bringing his CPAP or using it.
I doubt if you can get a sleep study done within 4 weeks, but I think you should start the process anyway, and get this sorted as soon as you can. Untreated sleep apnea will shorten your life and the enjoyment thereof. I am not a doctor, and this is my opinion, for what it’s worth.
I did find one CPAP site online that had their own doctor who would provide you with a prescription for CPAP and then sell you one. I have no idea by what criteria the doctor would decide what settings to put on the CPAP. The CPAP machines themselves seemed okay, they were well-known brands, but I don’t know if your insurance would pay for any of it. I am not recommending this, especially for a first-time CPAP user, but it does (or did) exist.
Was this an insurance issue, or something? Right now today, if you have a prescription, you can go online and order CPAP and BiPAP machines to be delivered within a few days. I remember getting my first CPAP within a very few days.
I don’t remember the exact reason. I think this was in 2023 and they told me it was a logistics issue and a shortage of machines. There may have been some leftover logistics and shortage issues post-Covid that hadn’t been straightened out. I have no idea why it took a few months to get me my BiPAP.
Follow-up question: People who have lived with me report that I do indeed snore as loud as a feral hog, and wake up periodically, however, they tell me I have no gasping/choking/signs of distress during sleep. Is that a necessary component of sleep apnea - that you keep waking in a noticeably unpleasant way because of being low on oxygen (or high in CO2?)
I’ve had my current CPAP machine for over five years, so I qualify to get a new, presumably updated machine. I got an email from my provider asking if I was interested in getting it. I called them to confirm that yes, I did, and was told they would get the ball rolling with the necessary paperwork and verify my qualifications.
It turns out that because I have Medicare in order to get a new machine I need to have had an in-person visit with my neurologist withing the past five months. The problem is, my last office visit was sometime last year, and the earliest appointment I can get is in September. I’m on a waiting list if an earlier appointment opens up, but I’m not hopeful.
When I was in the hospital for an unrelated issue, and before I was treated for OSA, they would hook me up to several sensors like they hook every other patient up to. One of the sensors was a pulse oximeter. Every time I’d try to sleep, the low oxygen alarm would eventually go off and wake me up. Sometimes it’d go off when I was in the phase transition between being awake and asleep, so I wasn’t even asleep yet. I had no signs of choking or gasping, its just that my airway closed up enough that my blood oxygen levels dropped. Mine were dropping into the 70s.
You can always buy an overnight pulse oximeter to measure your blood oxygen levels overnight and see what it says.
This is what an apnea event can look like. You don’t have to make a ton of movement, you just go silent for a bit.
For whatever reason its not letting me link to the part in the movie, but its at 3725 seconds in, so 1:02:05
Long time CPAP user here, but I’m unsure about the gasping/choking as a necessary component of apnea. I think it’s based more on the readings while you’re undergoing a sleep study.
I’d like to cover a few details about air travel with the machines. There are smaller travel versions which are tiny compared to the normal ones on our bedside tables. I don’t have one, and end up taking my full-sized machine in its provided case. But… although you can bring your machine with you, you still have to deal with other passengers forcing stuff onto/beside it in the overheads, or bumping it when on the floor in front of you. And some parts (particularly masks) are very fragile.
If you use a full-face mask, most of them have a 90 degree “elbow” where the hose enters the mask. This joint in particular is made of delicate parts, and breaks easily if pushed or compressed. Both of my machines’ cases had a mask pouch on one side which did little to protect it. Some brands of masks (Resmed) are connected in such a way that disassembling the elbow section seems to risk breaking other parts. FWIW, the cheaper masks at Kroger’s are tougher and the elbow part is much easier to remove (leaving a flatter and tougher surface of the mask against the soft edge of the case).
If you travel much, you’ll probably develop a collection of small spare parts over time that get dropped into your main luggage. I have a collection of the small, difficult to find parts in a plastic box (one of the large waterproof phone cases from Wallyworld – these are thick and tough). I keep a spare, disassembled mask in there.
I’ve become so dependent on the machine that I found an identical one on Ebay and bought it as a backup. I also have a battery in the bedside table that can power it for a few days. Almost all my travel is via RV, so I take both machines and their spare parts on trips, along with three power sources; generator, solar, and batteries (solar charges the battery).
