Portable Concentrator?

K is seriously considering transitioning from using portable liquid oxygen bottles to a portable oxygen concentrator offered by Inogen. In theory, it would give her a little more freedom. The concentrator battery lasts 3-4 hours, a little shorter than a bottle would, but it comes with two batteries, so in theory she could go 6-8 hours, if she's willing and able to switch the batteries while she's out. Plus, if she plugs it in, when she's in a car, or waiting at the doctor's office, it will run and charge at the same time, in which case, it can theoretically last longer than a bottle would.

The downside I'm struggling with, is what to do when we get four feet of snow, so there's no access in or out of our neighborhood, and the power goes out for a few days (it's happened). Right now, she can tap into the big liquid oxygen storage bottle in the garage, which will probably last for days, at a low flow rate.

The Inogen representative says, "just buy a couple of oxygen bottles to keep around the house for emergencies." But he's dreaming. Each bottle like he's talking about lasts just 3 hours at her flow rate, so we'd need 8 fully-loaded oxygen bottles to last an entire day, or 24 bottles to last three days, and we don't have room for all that stuff. Much less, the time and energy to keep it all. Ugh. I know she is being drawn in by the idea of having more freedom, but Medicare will only pay for the bottles or the concentrator, not both, so we'd have to cover the additional cost ourselves.

Considering we've only been stuck for an extended period without power twice in the past 18 years, once for almost three days, and once for about a day, I guess maybe I'm overly concerned. If she thinks it will give her more freedom, I'm inclined to let her go for it, and figure out how to handle the contingencies as best we can. The concentrator company says to call for a backup oxygen bottle, if the weather forecast seems to call for it, but that is such an iffy proposition, I have to laugh. The reality is, she can survive without supplemental oxygen for awhile, if there's no other option.

Oh, and some friends have suggested a generator, which is a possibility, but I think it just brings more logistical complications, to the point of diminishing returns. We'd have to keep enough gasoline on hand to run the generator for a few days, which is dangerous, and gas gets old, so if we don't use it, we'd have to change it out, or hope an additive like Sta-Bil will keep it usable for a few years. Then we'd have to deal with the intake/exhaust venting issue, if we wanted to run it in the garage, or we'd have to move it out onto the well-ventilated back patio. But then we'd be bothering our neighbors with the noise all day and night, and we'd have a long run for the cord through the basement, up the stairs, to the laundry room where the concentrator is.

And of course, I might have the option of blasting through the snow in my CR-V, before it gets too deep, and either taking her and the portable concentrator somewhere (hotel? hospital? friend's house?) that has power. The first time we lost power, it didn't happen until the roads were impassable, so I'm not sure how viable an option this is. On the other hand, that time, we had neighbors on a separate power circuit, that never lost power, and after a day without power ourselves, we just went and stayed with them, after they invited us over. Did I mention, she wasn't on oxygen back then? And she had both of her legs? And she wasn't going to dialysis three times a week? So losing power wasn't anywhere near as much of a concern, more of an inconvenience.