POWER FAILURE BACKUP FOR CPAP USERS

[SaldusMiegas]

I have a dumb question and I trust you all who are making preparations for power outages have thought and experienced more about the implications than I have so far.

My question is, why not simply sleep as best you can without the CPAP for a few nights until the power comes back on?

In my experience, I can definitely tell when I have a bad AHI night, but I think it would take a several of them to incapacitate me.

Unless there is some sort of shock factor to sudden onset full-fledged apnea versus the natural gradual onset when it originally developed back before we were diagnosed. Sort of like someone with a medication that has built up to a therapeutic level in their system and they suddenly stop the medication, then bad things would happen. Is apnea therapy like that?

Is power outage prep something that all CPAP patients should consider or is it only in special cases where it becomes essential?

Saldus Miegas

[justMongo]

Is power outage prep something that all CPAP patients should consider or is it only in special cases where it becomes essential?

Saldus Miegas

It depends on the severity of ones apnea; and how badly they would feel without it. For some individuals there is risk of dying in one's sleep. Usually these people have comorbid conditions such as A-fib to name one.

At least preparing for power outage is not too expensive; and does not put a person in the "tin foil hat" category.

[MobileBasset]

My question is, why not simply sleep as best you can without the CPAP for a few nights until the power comes back on?

In my experience, I can definitely tell when I have a bad AHI night, but I think it would take a several of them to incapacitate me.

Saldus Miegas

Me thinks you are tough as nails to choose that solution.

In my case there is some truth to your "gradual buildup" theory. Before I was diagnosed there was no solution. I just lived with symptoms. Now I understand the toll it takes on my body and the difference the machine brings. Now there is not only the actual sleep disruption, headache, and hypoxia but there is anxiety associated with that knowledge. I am spoiled and I will not go back if I can help it.

Setting up a battery is simple and straightforward. Other than size it's no different than all the equipment people have to keep their computers and media electronics running. It's just money and I consider it well spent for this purpose. The "one night" travel battery I have is very small.

As coincidence would have it, I needed my battery last night when the power went out. It is Labor Day weekend and many of the power company employees were probably on holiday so it took 10 hours to get it back on.

[kdmorris410]

My question is, why not simply sleep as best you can without the CPAP for a few nights until the power comes back on?

In my experience, I can definitely tell when I have a bad AHI night, but I think it would take a several of them to incapacitate me.

I have mild sleep apnea, so I did live without for one night. It wasn't a great night and I didn't feel great the next day, but it was tolerable (and I took a nap with CPAP at lunch the next day)

However, I have to prepare for hurricanes. In 2004, we lost power for 13 days after Hurricane Frances and then for another 5 days 3 days after it came back when Hurricane Jeanne came through. After Katrina in 2005 and again after Wilma in 2005, we were without power for 2 days each.

I don't think I would do well for that long without CPAP, even with mild sleep apnea.

[Sleepster]

My question is, why not simply sleep as best you can without the CPAP for a few nights until the power comes back on?

Because the days in between suck. It's not my Plan A.

[OMyMyOHellYes]

Probably enough else stressful going on if that is the case.

I love my CPAP and putting the mask on at night is probably the most pleasant part of my day. If I have to go without, that instant becomes a wad of anxiety and I probably won't sleep well, it at all, that night. And the next day without power doesn't get better, and the next stressful night of little or low quality sleep .....

I did once, back when I traveled a lot, forget to pack my machine on a week long trip to Las Vegas. One of the most miserable weeks in memory, in a place I normally really enjoy visiting.

But primarily, if you are having to deal without electricity and probably other bad, stressful, outside-the-ordinary things like finding clean water to drink, wholesome food to eat, fuel for cooking/eating, personal safety, communication with the outside world, then if you can prepare for using a CPAP in the outage and actually getting rest, then that is one thing you have going for you. Come to think of it, all those other things can be prepared for too. But some folks will call you a kook if they find out ...

OMMOHY

[ramjet]

If the power goes out for me I know within 5 seconds the mask comes off and I know I am in for a hell of a time.

There is no possible way for me to sleep at all, before i was diagnosed I had to attempt to sleep as vertical as possible to get a hit of sleep but I can no longer lye down with out my machine on.

It creates major panic attacks as soon as the power goes out, so for me I am looking for an alternative to grid power myself.

[warrenn]

My DME suggests the C-100 and it's larger brother for battery use. Has anyone used these? Can anyone say anything good or bad (other than the price)? I don't lose power often, but it's happened twice recently, both at night. One of these was 13-15 hours and affected an entire nights sleep. Help, anyone?

[Adoniscmj]

My DME suggests the C-100 and it's larger brother for battery use. Has anyone used these? Can anyone say anything good or bad (other than the price)? I don't lose power often, but it's happened twice recently, both at night. One of these was 13-15 hours and affected an entire nights sleep. Help, anyone?

I would imagine that you can get a night out of one. I went and bought a 1200 watt power inverter and a group 31 deep cycle battery with 130 ah rating on it. This will run my machine for days before it needs to be recharged also I have my cpap plugged into my large APC for my computer and it will run my CPAP for 8 hours. There are many ways of doing this, I would just do some research and then test your set up. I have moderate to severe sleep apnea and it would be a bad idea for me to go without for several nights as I have a fib as well. Just try to be prepared and if the power goes out you can rest assured that you will sleep well.

[MobileBasset]

My DME suggests the C-100 and it's larger brother for battery use. Has anyone used these? Can anyone say anything good or bad (other than the price)? I don't lose power often, but it's happened twice recently, both at night. One of these was 13-15 hours and affected an entire nights sleep. Help, anyone?

I have the C-100 and use it for a travel battery to run my ResMed S8 Elite II. It works fine for one night without humidifier. Then I need to find a way to recharge it. I take it in my RV also to use when there is no power hookup and can recharge it using the generator during the day.

At home, for my AirCurve 10, I use a full up 35AH AGM battery with a Deltran 5amp battery tender. I live in hurricane country.

If you search you will find many threads on this topic.