My wife has been on oxygen for about 5 years, and we've had to figure out how to make things work for her.
For home, Medicare will furnish a concentrator that you will probably run continuously. That, and a 50 ft. tube, and you're set. If the patient is on a CPAP, the concentrator hooks into that for night use.
Trying to be mobile presents a bunch of other problems.
Unless you do something about it, Medicare will put the patient on tanks, which are a PIA to lug around. The answer is a portable oyxgen concentrator. After some experience, I can say that the one to get is the Inogen One G4 in most cases (2 liters per minute, no trips to high elevation). It makes a huge difference in the patient's life style. My wife is able to move around and pretty much go wherever she wants. You can get them with a 2 hour battery, our a 4 hour battery. The 4 hour is the right ticket in most cases.
The portable concentrators are pulse machines, as opposed to the home concentrator which is continuous flow. The pulse untis give a little puff of oxygen when the patient inhales. That dramatically reduces the amount of oxygen needed, by about 4-5X, and allows the concentrator to be small and portable. However, pulse machines are not compatible with CPAPS. If the patient uses a CPAP, and if you want to travel overnight, it takes a bit more inventiveness.
When my wife started oxygen, Medicare was no help with the cost of the portable concentrator. But Inogen ads now hint that that may have changed. It is important to call Inogen headquarters ASAP, and start asking those questions. Five years ago, if we would have been a little quicker, I think we would have gotten some financial help. The key is calling Inogen HQ right away. In our case, we were on our own because we waited a while. I don't know what the current situation is. Could be no help, could be lots, but if you wait a month, you definitely won't get help.
I just got an unsolicited ad from a place where we get cannulas, Direct Home Medical, offering 25% off everything. They are an Inogen dealer. Use the code BLACK22.
One more thing: We still have a little pony tank and a couple of big tanks leftover from the days before we had Inogen. We keep a little tank under the seat of the car, just in case something goes haywire. The little concentrators are very reliable, and you can run them of the cigarette lighter in the car, but they are not quite perfectly reliable. One thing that I bought early on was an EasyPulse5 pulse regulator, $75 used off Ebay. It goes on a tank, just like the one that they will supply you with. But, like the pulse system on concentrators, it greatly reduces the amount of oxygen needed. A little 2 hour tank will go for 8-10 hours. That's good to have in case the power goes out.
I'm glad to answer a PM.
Last edited by denton; 11/26/22.
