Travel CPAP - can I rent one?

[davisesq212]

I am traveling in May on a cruise to the Med. I would like to be able to sleep on my flights to/from (mainly on the flight back from Athens to NYC). I know I will be thoroughly exhausted. My snoring without a machine is beyond loud. It could bring down a plane. Seriously though, I am anxious about falling sleep on any flight these days because of the noise I make snoring so I force myself to stay up. That's all well and good for domestic but on a long haul international, its probably not even remotely possible for me to stay up.

I have an S9 but would like to try out a Z1 or Transcend for this trip so I can sleep on the plane. The airline does allow for cpaps and there is an outlet at my seat. Is there anywhere I can rent either machine for a trip? The trip is about 10 days. (I dont know if this matters but my pressure is 13).

[bwexler]

Why don't you just take your S9?
I don't often fly but I took my S9 and now my PR S1 960 anywhere I go.

[sptrout]

I agree with bwexler. The so-called travel CPAPs are just as expensive as a full size one, so you may as well take you S9 or buy a second one (full CPAP machine) for backup. As for your question: I have not seen any place to rent machines, but that doesn't mean much since I have never looked. Besides, I am not sure that I would want to breathe air from a "pass around" machine.

[Gasper62]

Regardless of travel needs, I believe that it's very important to always have a spare/back up pap machine. You might look on craigslist to see if you can find one for not too much money.

[Jay Aitchsee]

I agree with the above posts about a 2nd machine, but to answer your question about renting, yes, you should be able to rent one from a DME, although you might find the cost prohibitive. Some time ago I inquired about renting one from my DME, it was possible but expensive and I ended up buying the machine from him instead.
Since (I assume) you will be taking your S9 on the cruise and the generally recommended method of transport is as a carry-on, why not just use the one you will be taking? Without the humidifier, the foot print is pretty small. Even with, it's not too bad.
For a 2nd machine, you might consider an S8. They are now inexpensive, relatively small without the humidifier and the power supply is built in. Data recovery is a bit difficult, though. Likewise, used S9s are pretty cheap and data recovery is not a problem. Check http://secondwindcpap.com/ for prices on reconditioned machines.