Oxygen Delivery

[Theda]

I hope I'm posting in the right place and not disturbing the flow in the forum but I was hoping to get some advice - any would be useful I'm American and will be travelling back to the US from France, where I currently live with my French boyfriend. He suffers from cluster headaches and as you all know, that can make travel difficult (not to mention all the added stress). In the past he has been nervous about traveling for an extended period of time as here in France oxygen, like most other services, are free. That being said, both of our healthcare information is all tied up in France (and in French). Does anyone know if there's any way at all to order an oxygen tank or two w/o any kind of insurance in the states? I'm doubtful my American status will get us anywhere and this will all be out of pocket but I'm willing to of course. Of course the other concern being they may be in limited supply shortly with covid. Any advice would be incredibly helpful - a place to start, anything. Thank you so much!

[Freud]

Easiest thing to do is bring a regulator and go to the welding supply store or Freight and Harbor” and get a welding tank.  Otherwise you need a script sent to one of the larger companies like Apria or Lincare I’m not sure how you could get that done as they won’t have a US medical license 

[CHfather]

I would check with your French oxygen supplier and see whether they can arrange O2 in the US, at least temporarily.  I know that some companies will do that for people with US prescriptions traveling outside the US.

As Freud says, you might want to get welding oxygen, which is used by some percentage of people with CH.  Since you probably never have had to look into that, here's is a link to a post about welding O2. https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/5627-notes-about-welding-o2/  (There's info there about regulators and masks, too.)

If he has some written documentation that he has CH (ideally, in English), it might be possible to go to an urgent care place in the US and get an O2 prescription.  Certainly it seems that would be feasible with a "regular" doctor or a neurologist at a headache center.  Once you have the prescription, as Freud says, you can usually get O2 and self-pay without insurance coverage.

One quibble with Freud -- I don't think you can get a filled welding tank, or any large tank, at Harbor Freight.  I could be wrong about that as a generalization -- it was true of the two HF stores I went to.  But wherever you end up there are likely to be welding supply stores and places like Home Depot that rent and refill tanks.

Finally . . . You might take a look around this board for information about the Vitamin D3 regimen.  It might not be familiar to you/him, and it has been very beneficial for large numbers of people.  The basics are in here, starting on the fifth page (the second page 2): https://vitamindwiki.com/tiki-download_wiki_attachment.php?attId=7708   Others can fill you in on nuances.  This thread seems to cover a lot of the bases: https://clusterbusters.org/forums/topic/7417-ditch-the-benadryl/?tab=comments#comment-71582

Edited November 30, 2021 by CHfather