A year and a half ago my CPAP machine started telling me it was old. Every time I turned it on, a message popped up on the tiny screen informing me it was old and tired and needed to be replaced. Again my old CPAP, a ResMed S9, was working fine. The only reason I replaced it was because it literally told me it was time to do so.
Upgrading a CPAP is a series of minor pain in the ass events. While the medical industry would certainly not agree with me, as a consumer/patient it feels like a series of arbitrary hoops designed to milk insurance companies. To get my new cPAP I had to have another sleep study done (my fourth or fifth one since getting my first CPAP two decades ago), make multiple appointments to see my sleep doctor, and finally pick up my new CPAP machine. Again, not the end of the world, but multiple appointments, tests, and payments to keep doing the treatment I’ve been doing and has been working for twenty years.
My new CPAP machine, a ResMed S11, has a bunch of bells and whistles my old one lacked. The new one came with heated tubes designed to further warm the air that comes out of the machine and shoots up my nostrils. The new machine also came with a cellular modem that tells somebody somewhere how much I use it. I already know how much I use it, so the data is not for me. They also replaced the small LCD screen that had I could (but rarely needed to) navigate with a rotating dial. The new one came with a large touch screen that adjusts its brightness according to the amount of light in the room, making it impossible to view unless you cover the sensor and trick it into thinking the doom is dark when all the lights are on.
My initial thought was “this new CPAP has a lot of things that could go wrong with it.” It took sixteen months for that to happen.
Last December I began waking up in the middle of the night with my nostrils on fire. It didn’t take long to discover the built-in humidifier was no longer working. It’s a little confusing as to who actually owns the CPAP. It appears to be some sort of rent-to-own plan through my insurance. When the CPAP is broken, it becomes very clear who owns it. Me.
It’s interesting but perhaps not unusual that all the same people I had to see to get the CPAP were suddenly not responsible for its repair. My insurance company said they only paid for the machine and pay for supplies, but not repairs. My sleep doctor was also quick to say “not it.” When we contacted the place that gave me the CPAP they said I could contact ResMed directly as the machine was still under warranty, but if I really really wanted to, I could bring it to them to look at. Second guessing myself and afraid I had dome something to make the machine not work right, I opted to take it in. Secretly I was worried that I had unintentionally changed a setting or broken something by taking it in and out of the van while on my little camping adventures.
The week before Christmas, I took my CPAP back to where i had received it. After a bit of brow beating (I was asked multiple times if I had dropped it or spilled water inside it), my CPAP was wrapped up in a plastic bag, papers were signed, and off it went to ResMed for repairs.
I went back to using my old CPAP. The one that nightly reminds me it’s on its last legs.
After nearly a month, we received a call that my new new CPAP had returned and was ready to be picked up. There was no charge, I was told, and the paperwork I received said that the humidifier had failed and needed to be replaced and daughterboard that controls the heating system had failed and needed to be replaced, and the motherboard had failed and needed to be replaced.
Well, at least the plastic shell was still okay.
We picked up my new CPAP a few days ago and… it’s still sitting in the plastic bag in the floor of my bedroom, waiting to be hooked up. Sometime this weekend I’ll re-disassemble “ol faithful” and put the old S9 back in a box, warning message and all, waiting in case it ever needs to return to service.