The most dangerous part of that cranking thing was damage to your thumb. Once that flywheel started spinning, if you didn't get the thumb out of the way you had some bad gouge to bandage. My first CPAP machine you didn't have to crank it, but you did have to adjust the belt every few months, it would stretch, and either had to be replaced or move the adjusting nut. I still have the Respironics tool for that, a 7/16" open end wrench that had been heated so it could bend at backwards (almost 180 degrees!) angle to get to the adjusting nut. You kids are lucky you don't have to deal with that anymore. Dr. Garay, who was the partner of the guy who invented the machine! it was my good fortune to meet him in his office on York Avenue and when i asked if it could cause damage to breath too deeply with one of those machines," her thought for a moment and said "well, maybe?" Can you imaging such a great guy, a genius doctor and inventor, talking with me as if I was an equal, and so humble. I suppose he is dead now.

val wrote:

The most dangerous part of that cranking thing was damage to your thumb. Once that flywheel started spinning, if you didn't get the thumb out of the way you had some bad gouge to bandage. My first CPAP machine you didn't have to crank it, but you did have to adjust the belt every few months, it would stretch, and either had to be replaced or move the adjusting nut. I still have the Respironics tool for that, a 7/16" open end wrench that had been heated so it could bend at backwards (almost 180 degrees!) angle to get to the adjusting nut. You kids are lucky you don't have to deal with that anymore. Dr. Garay, who was the partner of the guy who invented the machine! it was my good fortune to meet him in his office on York Avenue and when i asked if it could cause damage to breath too deeply with one of those machines," her thought for a moment and said "well, maybe?" Can you imaging such a great guy, a genius doctor and inventor, talking with me as if I was an equal, and so humble. I suppose he is dead now.

How long ago was this?


_________________
My Kinda town Chicago is



Nothing in life is guaranteed, not even taxes -- you have to make money to get money back

Chicago, "Chi town" they used to call it. It's ok, but I prefer Paterson, N.J. Especially after dark, some of those "inner city" streets are interesting. Dion O'Banion, you likely don't remember him, he had a flower shop across from the famous cathedral there, Francis of Asisi?, and that gangster his name I rememer if Vincenzo Damora, aka "Machine Gun Jack McGurn" funny name@ and some pals came in, shook his hand, and then blasted him. started a big war there.  In your town, not in Paterson NJ.

Naturally the old cars long ago. The self starter has been around oh gosh many years. You just push a button on the floor or turn a key, and off you go.

Dr. Garay, I think his first name was Kenneth, that was in the early 8os not so long ago. He was affiliated with Bellevue Downtown Hosp. (in those days hospitals were called that, today they are "Medical Centers" just as all colleges are now "universtieis.") on 20 sometingth street in New York City. CPAP machines had just been invented, some fellow in Australis or NZ came up with the idea. I got one of the first in this country, the Respironics "Model 1." Still have it in the closet, works perfectly. Had this big external valve, called a "Sanders valve" after the inventor, and you twisted the stem to change the pressure.



Last edited by val on Wed Jul 02, 2008 10:26 am; edited 1 time in total

actually none of that has anything to do with anything, enjoy your machine be happy you got it.

Val, our first car was a British car which had a starter but you could also crank it.  I'd almost forgotten that.  And one day we went for a day at a beach and when it was time to go home, the car wouldn't start.  So we left it at the local garage and hitched a lift home.  When my husband went up to fetch it, the garage man said that the distributor cap was cracked and that he had coated it with airplane dope and baked it a bit, and the car would now start. Of course, we replaced the cracked cap as soon as possible and thereafter carried a spare.

Must have been an old car indeed. Cars don't even have distributors any more, substitute "electronic ignition." The days in which you would fix a car with glue are over.

Some moden things tho are an improvement (but not many). On back to topic, I have not had a decent night's sleep in, no exaggeration, 15 years. Cpap, bipap, manual pap, automatic pap, nothing would help. Every morning with "altitude sickness." By the way, my theory on that, which am surprised nothing (at least that I found) in the literature, and it seems so simple, your brain needs air, and if it doesn't get enough of those O2 molecules, it opens up the blood vessels in there hoping to make more room for them, to encourage them to stop by and visit. The blood vessels, stretch, there are pain receptions in blood vessels "stretch receptors" and voila headache.