Portable oxygen concentrator issued by VA

[RetiredMarine]

Good evening clusterheads,

I have a question for veterans......if you know by any chance or point me to the right direction. 
I have a military tricare and they are saying that they will pay for all of my oxygen needs. (Now the part where it gets little confusing). 
I’m under VA health care as well and VA is providing oxygen tanks but I don’t qualify for the POC where I can just put it in my car or have it with me in my workplace. They are saying that I don’t require 24/7 oxygen ..... that way I’m disqualified. Well that’s the VA system. I’m still glad that they are providing the tanks. 
So I went different route and went through my Tricare. Seen neurologist and he gave me a prescription for the portable oxygen concentrator. I did call numerous oxygen companies/ providers in TN but every one of them said that I don’t qualify for the POC because I don’t have any pulmonary issues or I don’t require oxygen 24/7.....
Is there anyway around? Do you know anyone in US (I’m willing to travel) who would provide the POC?

Thanks a bunch. 
Mark from TN

[Pebblesthecorgi]

Not sure what a POC is but an O2 concentrator will not meet needs.  They can't maintain the flow rates or O2 concentration required to abort a cluster.  There are a few folks who report a concentrator working but they represent the exception and not the rule.

[RetiredMarine]

Just now, Pebblesthecorgi said:

Not sure what a POC is but an O2 concentrator will not meet needs.  They can't maintain the flow rates or O2 concentration required to abort a cluster.  There are a few folks who report a concentrator working but they represent the exception and not the rule.

Sorry. The VA calls it POC (portable oxygen concentrator). 
I know the flow is super low (max 6LPM) but I think if I’m not close by my oxygen tanks the little POC would help me little bit. I’m just tired of dragging the cart with me everywhere. 

[ThatHurtsMyHead]

RM,

Also a VA care recipient.  Don't bother with a concentrator, they can't deliver the high volume O2 that's needed to abort CH attacks.  The VA provides me with an unlimited supply of "E" tanks.  They're easy to store and transport.  You can buy your own high flow regulator (the max they would provide me was 15lpm).  I've bought my own 25lpm regulators a long time back.  You can start huffing at 25 then turn it down as the pain eases.

Myself and many others have tried the concentrators, and they're simply useless, due to the low flow.

Cheers,

J

 

 

[RetiredMarine]

14 minutes ago, ThatHurtsMyHead said:

RM,

Also a VA care recipient.  Don't bother with a concentrator, they can't deliver the high volume O2 that's needed to abort CH attacks.  The VA provides me with an unlimited supply of "E" tanks.  They're easy to store and transport.  You can buy your own high flow regulator (the max they would provide me was 15lpm).  I've bought my own 25lpm regulators a long time back.  You can start huffing at 25 then turn it down as the pain eases.

Myself and many others have tried the concentrators, and they're simply useless, due to the low flow.

Cheers,

J

 

 

J,

thanks a bunch for your reply. 

[xxx]

Hey Marine,

I'm a 75-year-old retired Navy fighter pilot and I'm on Tricare for Life as well. I've never had any problems getting M-Size oxygen cylinders or a few of the smaller E-size cylinders with a CGA-870 regulator.  Ask for a CGA-870 regulator with selectable flow rates up to 25 liters/minute.  If they tell you they don't have any with flow rates that high, buy one as suggested.

Better yet, make yourself a DIY Redneck Oxygen Reservoir system out of a clean empty plastic Coke  or Gatorade bottle (with cap) and bottom cut off, a clean kitchen trash bag, tubing from a disposable oxygen mask, some electrician's tape and some Duck Tape.  The following diagram should help.

When you're done building this Rube Goldberg contraption it should look like the following Redneck reservoir bag without the oxygen tubing.

If you've done a good job with the tape so the seals are all gas-tight so it holds oxygen overnight without deflating, and you use the right breathing procedures, one of these Redneck oxygen reservoir systems is good for three aborts.  These contraptions have zero inhalation resistance making them easier to inhale from than an oxygen demand valve.

The procedure is simple.  You hyperventilate with room air at forced vital capacity tidal volumes for 30 seconds then remove the cap from the Coke bottle and inhale a lungful of oxygen from the Redneck reservoir bag and replace the cap.  Hold the lungful of oxygen for 30 seconds then keep repeating the complete sequence until  the CH pain is gone.  This usually takes an average of seven complete cycles (7 minutes).  Forced vital capacity means exhale forcibly until it feels like the lungs are empty - they're not - without delay, do an abdominal crunch like doing sit-ups and hold the squeeze on every exhalation for a second.  On the final exhalation hold the squeeze for three seconds.  This will squeeze out a half to full liter of exhaled breath highest in CO2 content.  Blowing off CO2 like this is an important part of aborting CH. 

If you're doing this procedure and breathing technique properly, you should start feeling a slight tingling or prickling sensation in the lower legs and feet, hands, face and lips after the 3rd to 4th cycle with room air.  You may even sense a chill across the lower back above the belt line.  These sensations are called parasthesia, an indication you've pushed you system into respiratory alkalosis, a temporary condition where the blood CO2 content is below normal.  These sensations are caused by capillaries and microvasculature in the skin constricting.  This is what we want to happen in the trigeminovascular system as it speeds up the abort.  If you watched the movie The Andromeda Strain, respiratory alkalosis is what saved the baby.  This is an important mechanism that also aborts CH.

A low blood CO2 content means the blood is more alkaline with a higher pH than normal.  This is also an important CH abort mechanism as the elevated pH triggers blood hemoglobin to have a greater affinity for oxygen and off load CO2 faster as blood passes through the lungs.  The result is a super-oxygenated flow of blood to the brain and this is also an important part of the CH abort mechanism.

This method of oxygen therapy as a CH abortive is just as effective as using an oxygen demand valve.  I hold a patent (now expired) on the demand valve method of therapy in aborting CH.  The big difference is in the amount of oxygen consumed.  Hyperventilating with an oxygen demand valve until the abort will consume 250 to 300 liters of oxygen.  Using the above procedure consumes ~ 25 to 30 liters of oxygen/abort.

A redneck reservoir bag is a lot easier to haul around in the back seat of your car than an E-Size medical oxygen cylinder.

Take care and please keep us posted.

V/R, Batch

 

 

Edited March 11, 2020 by Batch

[RetiredMarine]

12 hours ago, Batch said:

Hey Marine,

I'm a 75-year-old retired Navy fighter pilot and I'm on Tricare for Life as well. I've never had any problems getting M-Size oxygen cylinders or a few of the smaller E-size cylinders with a CGA-870 regulator.  Ask for a CGA-870 regulator with selectable flow rates up to 25 liters/minute.  If they tell you they don't have any with flow rates that high, buy one as suggested.

Better yet, make yourself a DIY Redneck Oxygen Reservoir system out of a clean empty plastic Coke  or Gatorade bottle (with cap) and bottom cut off, a clean kitchen trash bag, tubing from a disposable oxygen mask, some electrician's tape and some Duck Tape.  The following diagram should help.

When you're done building this Rube Goldberg contraption it should look like the following Redneck reservoir bag without the oxygen tubing.

If you've done a good job with the tape so the seals are all gas-tight so it holds oxygen overnight without deflating, and you use the right breathing procedures, one of these Redneck oxygen reservoir systems is good for three aborts.  These contraptions have zero inhalation resistance making them easier to inhale from than an oxygen demand valve.

The procedure is simple.  You hyperventilate with room air at forced vital capacity tidal volumes for 30 seconds then remove the cap from the Coke bottle and inhale a lungful of oxygen from the Redneck reservoir bag and replace the cap.  Hold the lungful of oxygen for 30 seconds then keep repeating the complete sequence until  the CH pain is gone.  This usually takes an average of seven complete cycles (7 minutes).  Forced vital capacity means exhale forcibly until it feels like the lungs are empty - they're not - without delay, do an abdominal crunch like doing sit-ups and hold the squeeze on every exhalation for a second.  On the final exhalation hold the squeeze for three seconds.  This will squeeze out a half to full liter of exhaled breath highest in CO2 content.  Blowing off CO2 like this is an important part of aborting CH. 

If you're doing this procedure and breathing technique properly, you should start feeling a slight tingling or prickling sensation in the lower legs and feet, hands, face and lips after the 3rd to 4th cycle with room air.  You may even sense a chill across the lower back above the belt line.  These sensations are called parasthesia, an indication you've pushed you system into respiratory alkalosis, a temporary condition where the blood CO2 content is below normal.  These sensations are caused by capillaries and microvasculature in the skin constricting.  This is what we want to happen in the trigeminovascular system as it speeds up the abort.  If you watched the movie The Andromeda Strain, respiratory alkalosis is what saved the baby.  This is an important mechanism that also aborts CH.

A low blood CO2 content means the blood is more alkaline with a higher pH than normal.  This is also an important CH abort mechanism as the elevated pH triggers blood hemoglobin to have a greater affinity for oxygen and off load CO2 faster as blood passes through the lungs.  The result is a super-oxygenated flow of blood to the brain and this is also an important part of the CH abort mechanism.

This method of oxygen therapy as a CH abortive is just as effective as using an oxygen demand valve.  I hold a patent (now expired) on the demand valve method of therapy in aborting CH.  The big difference is in the amount of oxygen consumed.  Hyperventilating with an oxygen demand valve until the abort will consume 250 to 300 liters of oxygen.  Using the above procedure consumes ~ 25 to 30 liters of oxygen/abort.

A redneck reservoir bag is a lot easier to haul around in the back seat of your car than an E-Size medical oxygen cylinder.

Take care and please keep us posted.

V/R, Batch

 

 

Batch, Thank you for your service!

Thank you so much for your input.

R/S

Mark

[xxx]

Hey Mark,

Thank you for your service.  The Redneck Reservoir bags work like a champ with aborts running around 7 minutes with the procedure outlined in my previous post.  I made the one shown in the photo while salmon fishing in Pelican, AK, a fish camp with population 76 in the winter so there are no medical oxygen suppliers.  Fortunately, there are lots of welders and plenty of welding oxygen.  I made up two such Redneck Reservoir bags last June when an allergic reaction to mold spores kicked me out of a CH remission that had been running for over a year CH pain free.  I filled these bags by sticking the tip of a cutting torch in the plastic bottle and turned on only the oxygen.  It took 4 days loading vitamin D3 at 50,000 IU/day plus Benadryl at 25 mg every four hours throughout the day to stop the CH beast from jumping ugly. 

Even with the CH hist coming at night, they did not stop me from salmon fishing during the day...

Take care and please keep us posted.

V/R, Batch

[shadowcatsam]

On 3/9/2020 at 7:17 PM, ThatHurtsMyHead said:

RM,

Also a VA care recipient.  Don't bother with a concentrator, they can't deliver the high volume O2 that's needed to abort CH attacks.  The VA provides me with an unlimited supply of "E" tanks.  They're easy to store and transport.  You can buy your own high flow regulator (the max they would provide me was 15lpm).  I've bought my own 25lpm regulators a long time back.  You can start huffing at 25 then turn it down as the pain eases.

Myself and many others have tried the concentrators, and they're simply useless, due to the low flow.

Cheers,

J

 

 

That has been my experience exactly.