u/RippingLegos__

Hello PapFam,

I have a handful of serviced APAP/CPAP machines and mask systems (higher hours) that I would like to get into the hands of people who actually need therapy than leave on a shelf.

These are free/donation machines. I am not charging for the machine or mask system. You would just need to cover the actual shipping cost.

This is mainly for people who are uninsured, underinsured, stuck waiting on a DME, cannot afford a machine right now, or otherwise have a legitimate need where we can help them.

Machines will be cleaned, checked, and tested before they leave here. Depending on what I have available, I can usually include a hose, humidifier chamber, power supply, and a mask system as well.

Please note that these are CPAP/APAP machines, not bilevel units.

If you need one, please send me a message (or email here: pc7579pc@gmail.com) with a little bit about your situation, whether you already have a prescription or sleep study, what pressure/settings you were prescribed if known, and what size/type of mask you normally use.

Please do not request one just to have a spare or flip it. I would like these to go to people who genuinely need access to therapy.

If anyone else has usable PAP equipment they would like to donate, feel free to reach out as well. I am happy to keep getting these units and full packages that I compile, back into circulation instead of letting perfectly functional machines end up in a closet or landfill. Also please feel free to cross-post this thread to other pap communities so more folks can see it, thank you kindly. Regards, RL.

My brother found me a $5,000 1948 steel boat. I assume he hates me...

My brother found this thing on FB Marketplace and sent it to me, presumably because we have unresolved childhood issues. It’s a 1948 Steelcraft (which is legit), 26 feet, built in West Haven, Connecticut, with a Packard straight-six marine engine, and the seller wants $5,000. The seller specifically says, “Hull is solid and not rusty.” Sir. I am currently looking at the hull. Apparently that brown material covering portions of the 78-year-old steel boat is not rust. That is Maine patina. Possibly heritage. Maybe seasoning. Maybe the rust has been there so long it has acquired squatters’ rights and legally became part of the hull..

The seller also says it has been in freshwater its whole life, mostly Moosehead Lake, which admittedly is probably the single best sentence in the entire ad. Freshwater its whole life. That phrase is currently doing more structural work than several portions of this boat I feel. Then there’s the engine. A Packard straight six. Wonderful. Because apparently owning a 78-year-old steel boat wasn’t enough of a hobby. Now I can spend my evenings on obscure forums asking whether anyone knows a retired machinist in Vermont who has a water pump gasket for an engine last serviced during the Truman administration.

The seller also says, “Please look it up. There’s a bunch of info online.” Nothing settles the nerves of a prospective second boat owner like me being told to research the internet immediately after seeing the words 1948 Packard marine engine. And then we reach the masterpiece: TRAILER NOT INCLUDED. The boat is literally sitting on the trailer in the picture. So what exactly happens when I buy it? I hand him $5,000, we shake hands, and three guys yank the trailer out from underneath the boat like a fucking tablecloth trick? TA-DAAAAA! Congratulations. Your boat now lives here.

So for five grand my brother has found me a 78-year-old steel boat, a Packard engine, some completely non-rust-colored hull decoration, no trailer, and what I assume will become an extremely intimate relationship with a welder. And the worst part is I genuinely think it’s cool. Someone please talk me out of this before I start saying things like, “Well… it HAS been in freshwater its whole life.”

I found Sun Ra in college after already spending a lot of time with Coltrane, Miles, Monk, and Dolphy. Even then, some of his music took work to hear. He can be dissonant, strange, and completely outside what most people expect from jazz.

This track is one of the easier doors into this world. It still has that unmistakable Sun Ra atmosphere, but it’s melodic, hypnotic, and beautiful.

If you’ve always thought Sun Ra was too far out, give this one a shot please :).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsjB7hdfQrQ

I wanted to share one of my own charts for a change with the PapFam :)

I was diagnosed with severe OSA in 2014 after falling asleep at the wheel on the interstate. I was also snoring so loudly that my newborn son could not sleep in the same room with me. My oxygen was dropping low and staying there, with a nadir of 71%. Looking back, I had probably been living with untreated sleep apnea for close to 30 years. By then I had heart failure.

I started with a DSX500, titrated to a DSX700, then moved over to a ResMed VAuto. After all of that I eventually came back to the DSX500 with C-Flex+, because it just works very well for me. More advanced therapy did not mean better therapy in my case. Fixed CPAP is what treats my OSA best.

This was one of my nights from May. Fixed pressure at 18 cm with C-Flex+ set to 1. I woke up twice, but otherwise slept well.

The Philips leak graph includes the normal mask vent rate, so the leak threshold is higher than it is on ResMed.

I am sharing this for anyone who is having a rough time with PAP right now. It took me a long time and several machines to find what worked for me, so please do not get discouraged if you have not found yours yet. Keep at it, and please ask for help when you need it :)

RL

We have two new ResMed mask systems to donate to members of our wonderful community who genuinely need one but are having trouble getting the right equipment.

One is an AirFit F10 For Her in extra small, and the other is a Mirage Swift II nasal pillow system. If either would help you, leave a comment telling me which one you need and why. I’ll choose two people and cover shipping within the US. Please only enter if you can actually use the mask so these can reach someone who needs a better night of sleep.

RL

Hello PapFam,

Most people are handed an APAP (me 15 years ago), shown how to put on the mask and sent home. If the machine reports an AHI under 5, they (we) are told the therapy is working. But the AHI can look beautiful while the respiratory waveform is still a wreck.

CPAP and APAP hold the airway open. BiPAP adds pressure support, meaning the machine provides more pressure during inhalation and less during exhalation. That extra support can help when we see flattened breaths, shortened inspiration, curtailed expiration, persistent flow limitation and repeated arousals. This is why someone can have an AHI of 1 and still wake up feeling like they were hit by a truck.

S/T is a different tool. It adds a backup respiratory rate for people who need help maintaining ventilation. AVAPS and iVAPS can adjust pressure support toward a ventilation target. These modes are generally used for hypoventilation, neuromuscular weakness, restrictive disease, COPD with carbon dioxide retention and other conditions where the person is not moving enough air.

ASV changes pressure support breath by breath. It is designed to stabilize central apnea, treatment emergent central apnea, complex apnea, periodic breathing and waxing and waning respiratory patterns. Factory ASV includes an automatic backup rate.

We have two custom ASV firmware options. One retains the backup rate and the other removes it. Both open the pressure support range by removing the factory guardrails. The no BUR version lets the person maintain their own respiratory timing while still receiving dynamic pressure support. This can be very helpful for severe flow limited breathing and UARS when changing support is beneficial but forced backup breaths are not.

The no BUR version is not for someone who depends on backup ventilation. That person may need ASV with the backup rate, S/T, AVAPS or iVAPS. Please reach out to me via DM for help for this detirmination.

The chart is a map, not a prescription. AHI is only one number (RDI is also very important). Please look at the waveform malformations, flow limitation, respiratory effort, central activity, periodic breathing, oxygen and how the person actually sleeps and feels.

If you want help reading your own data, please make a post with your complete daily chart, your current settings and your sleeping position overall.

RL

With a bunch of spare tires/wheels and upgrades!

Hobbywing Max8 G2 ESC Hobbywing 4278 SD G2 2250 kV motor JConcepts aluminum front and rear chassis braces JConcepts aluminum front and rear shock towers JConcepts carbon-tube chassis brace

I was born in 1975, and this is one of my earliest toy memories. We lived in a nice little house surrounded by woods then, and I remember pulling this turtle around as a toddler. I hadn’t seen one in nearly 50 years, but I recognized it instantly. Funny what stays buried in your head. Who else had one, and do you remember what it did when you pulled it?