First, I called my local office and Fran told me that I needed to also have a concentrator to carry with us in case the POS breaks. These are heavy big concentrators. I am not going to haul an unneeded very heavy concentrator in our car for 6,500 miles nor have Michael lift it in and out of our car. Not going to happen.
The local office told me that I couldn’t get the POS without a concentrator. It has to be delivered during our trip. Okay, I thought, I will have them drop it off at Chip and Betty’s house in New Mexico as we will see them on day two of the trip. I gave them their address for delivery and told them they could drop it off on a Friday and pick it up on a Monday. Okay, I’ll play the game.
I talked to Whitney at the New Mexico branch and said, “I have to be honest and tell you that I don’t want a concentrator. I don’t need a concentrator. If the POS breaks, we will swing by any Apria office throughout the country. I am not hauling it with us in a small car for a month. I use 2 liters of oxygen at night and need it only in altitude or if I exercise during daylight hours. I am not on a continuous flow of 6 or 10 liters.”
She told me that they only deliver in my brother’s area once a month. I responded that it made no sense to have a totally unused and unwanted concentrator sit there for a month. Crazy.
She called her supervisor and said that I don’t have to have one.
Yippee!
She also said to call my local office to order the POS to be delivered there for pickup just before the trip.
Thank you very much.
Well, that is when the trouble began. I called Fran again. She sputtered and spit and said that it is just not possible. Then she asked for Whitney’s number and said she would call me back. I waited four hours. Nothing. It was Friday.
On Tuesday, I phoned my best friend Fran. She gave me the national number for ordering the POS. I had a great chat with Diane and here is what I discovered:
In order to rent a POS from them, I had to give them the date and address of every hotel where we will be staying (there will be 15 of them…). We will have to carry a concentrator with us and they only have POS on pulse delivery instead of continuous air. I need continuous air for my disease.
I gave up. I thanked her. I phone the little local company who rented the Eclipse continuous air system to me in the past. It took less than five minutes to make the arrangements. I will pick it up at their offices a few days before the trip and drop if off the day after our trip all for $342.00 for the month.
Bingo. Done.
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