I guess I look at the machine as more of a luxury than a necessity. There are probably millions of people in the world who could benefit from the machine but they may live long lives and die of several other diseases than the problems associated with APNEA. My wife actually diagnosed my condition many years before I saw a doctor. ;-) for employment reasons, I refused to see a doc until after I retired. I take Plavix every day, but I've been arguing with the doctor that it is not needed for what he thinks it is but he says he wished he could have every body over 50 on it!
Since both the CPAP machine and the pills are covered by my insurance, I figure it's the only safe way to get any of my money back!
But I would not hesitate to sleep during a power outage ( or even a camping trip ) should the need arise. The main problem with APNEA is the detrimental effects of lack of sleep, not dieing. That lack of sleep also affects those within earshot, as well. I know of several people who have been diagnosed and have a machine but refuse to use it because of the uncomfortable mask. Some will never find a comfortable mask and some don't want to, there are amazingly comfortable ones available for those who seek them.
I think what
Harv is suggesting is that almost any decent UPS should be capable of powering a CPAP machine through the night, it just doesn't use much power, certainly not as much as any computer. If that helps one sleep better, fine. Personally, I'm not in the market for either a machine with a built-in battery back up or having mine connected to a UPS ( FedEx, maybe, but not UPS! ).
I suspect that most deaths attributable to APNEA are never reported because it would be extremely difficult to tell that's what caused it. Unless one happened to be connected to a recording system at the time, it would probably be diagnosed as a heart attack or stroke. BTW, my machine has a recording function using a removable card. It must not hold much info as it's been almost two years since it was last read/reformatted and it shows only slightly more than 50% full.
Perhaps that kind of recording
would show what happened just before a death, I don't know.
You, probably better than most here, know our 'departure time' is unknowable.
We do what we can to stay healthy ( if it's not too much trouble!
) and take the medicine(s) and advice of the doctors we trust. Be careful of technologies that try to get you to think they will do something that may not really be necessary. Buyer beware? And that certainly applies to UPSs.
