Why Does Getting Oxygen Have to Make Us Look Like Cripples?
I sure hope I continue to have suitable natural oxygen the rest of my life. I would absolutely hate having being tethered to one of those portable oxygen tanks.
I would react the same as Grandma Henke…
I don’t know what I expected, but I had a hard time controlling my tears when the poor man carried everything into our living room. All of a sudden I felt very old and “crippled”. After he left I held a private pity party (well unfortunately Lynn was unwittingly invited) and I shed a few tears and wallowed off and on all afternoon…
Why isn’t there a cooler way to get Oxygen into your system than those ugly tubes and that ugly cannister? Do they have to be so big and intrusive? Baby-boomers still think they are 30 and cool so…
Invent one of these please (before I need it):
- InnerTubes. A device that can be shoved up your butt to introduce oxygen without everyone thinking you are about to keel over and die.
- YourAirness. A small oxygen container that can be tucked away under clothes so you don’t have to wheel around a week’s worth of breathing material.
- EarVent. Tiny tubes that fit into your ears to introduce life. You ever sneeze and have your ears pop? They are connected right? your ears and your lungs? Somehow?
Are there still Oxygen Bars? Those are cool. Why is cool aways reserved for the able-bodied?
Not Cool
Cool
It’s bad enough to have to sleep with a contraption on my cranium because of sleep apnea. At least I can pull the covers over my head and hide. I don’t know who I’m hiding from! Shut up.
Decision: If I ever need Oxygen, I am going full-bore Mike Nelson. Yup, wetsuit and full face mask with TWO giant tanks on my back.
They do make portable packs for oxygen that weigh about 10-13 pounds. Some people are too frail to carry that much weight so they use the small tanks on a pull cart. My FIL is experiencing the same tethering effect when he’s at home, but the alternative is worse.
I tell my elderly family members that walkers, canes, oxygen are simply aids like glasses and hearing aids. What’s the big deal about what other people think? Pack up the crap into the car and get out and live, and they do!
@Catch Her: Spoken like a person who doesn’t need hearing aids or a walker or oxygen. I understand your point. It’s good that you are supportive of your friends/family that need these aids – but it is a hurdle that needs to be dealt with.
There really should be some designers at work on this problem. Especially with an aging BBoomer population. Michael Kors, Prada, Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs — they could all make a bundle. They would become the new status symbol. Designer oxygen tanks. Exclusive to Saks Fifth Avenue, of course. 😉
I love this! Thank you Thank you! I have thought often that there should be a way to plug it into the back of your neck instead of right into your nose, that is in the middle of your face! You could forget all about it if it wasn’t hanging around your ears and attached to your nose. However, I do agree with Catch Her that the alternative right now is worse. I don’t know how I missed this earlier.