Yesterday was a wet one, with rain falling most of the day. Sometimes there was not much more than a shower, and other times it was a real downpour. I would have been perfectly happy to stay home all day, but I had a doctor’s appointment in the afternoon, so we ventured out.
As it turned out, that was a waste of time because it was a follow-up to see how I was adjusting to the CPAP machine that was prescribed for me several months ago for my sleep apnea. The only problem with that was that I still don’t have the machine because it’s on backorder, like just about everything else these days. The doctor’s office called the distributor to try to find out when I might actually get the machine, but the only thing they were told was that now I’m on the list. In fact, I’ve worked my way all the way up to being second on the list.
Stavros Pizza is a nice family-owned restaurant in New Smyrna Beach and is a favorite of ours. On Mondays and Wednesdays, their large pizza is half price plus $1, and since the doctor’s office was only a couple of blocks from there, we stopped to have dinner. Then, on the way home we stopped at Gary’s Meat Market, another small family-owned business that always has the best cuts of meat to be found anywhere, along with a good selection of seafood. Besides some pork chops, a whole chicken, ground beef, and some other goodies, we also got some tuna steaks, large shrimp, and scallops. I definitely see a lot of good eating in my future!
Back at home we spent the evening watching TV. We like the boob tube now and then, and there’s been some good stuff on lately. We have watched all of the seasons of Kevin Costner’s Yellowstone to date, and on Monday night, we watched the premiere of 1883, which tells the story of the pioneer Dutton family whose saga continues into the modern-day west in Yellowstone. If you like westerns, I think you will like 1883. The cast includes Sam Elliott, Tim McGraw, and Faith Hill. There’s some raw language and lots of violence, but the Old West was never a gentle place.
We’re supposed to have even more rain today, and if we didn’t have to venture out, we wouldn’t. But we have an appointment to drop off the Laramie at a place called Line-X in Daytona Beach to have it undercoated and a trifold tonneau cover installed.
The rain is supposed to be clearing out sometime tonight, and daytime temperatures Wednesday are supposed to be down in the mid-60s. That sounds good to me, hot chocolate weather!
And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us. Maybe it’s just the skeptic in me, but when someone wants to give me something for free and makes it a point of telling me it’s not haunted, I suspect it is haunted. How about you?
Thought For The Day – We live in a country where the consequences of our behavior are always someone else’s fault.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Merry Christmas, Nick. I just noticed your item about getting a CPAP machine. I’ve been going through that little adventure for the last several months, and learned quite a bit about the whole sleep medicine business.
The reason CPAP machines are out of stock is that Philips Respironics recalled a few million machines, and that has caused major problems in the market. One thing I learned is that providers are not all created equal. I had one supplier tell me that no machines were available and I would be on a waiting list for weeks or longer. This was the supplier that the doctor chose to send the prescription to, without discussing with me. After some research I found that other providers did have machines available, as well as online providers that sell for cash.
Big lesson learned, you the patient have control of the choices, both of providers and CPAP machines. I chose to instruct the doctor to send my prescription to a provider that I have references for and verified they had machines available. Also insisted that both the sleep study report and prescription also be sent directly to me so that I could choose any provider I wanted. If a doctor refuses to do this, then find another doctor.
Another lesson is that providers may sometimes choose to give you whatever CPAP machine they want, without asking you. I strongly suggest that you research and choose what is best for you. It’s your choice.
For what it’s worth, after much research, I concluded that the best machine for me is the recently-introduced ResMed AirSense 11 AutoSet. It replaced the 7-year old AirSense 11, and is designed with up-to-date technology where the AirSense 10 is several generations old.
I found a great deal of very useful information on a discussion site called Apnea Board. http://www.apneaboard.com/forums/index.php
I hope this is helpful. I’ve found the whole sleep medicine business to be very frustrating. I’m on my 3rd sleep doctor now, and about to try a fourth. Patient communication has been extremely poor to non-existent and I have had great difficulty getting my questions answered. Hope it’s better for you.
I recently received a Resmed Airsense 11 CPAP from my Medicare provider, Adapthealth. It replaced a Resmed Airsense 10 I got in 2014. The machines are out there. Two things to note, older Airsense 10s have CDMA cell radios in them and the word is some recent Airsense 10s also have such radios due to chips shortages. Sometime next year the CDMA networks will be shut down and the CPAPs will still work, but will be unable to upload the data to the internet. The other thing is the Airsense 11 comes with a heated hose, which a boondocker might not like. Luckily it can use a cheaper generic unheated hose.