Today I attended my weekly fit to breath session and was feeling very good, in fact so good that I thought that I would try to do the session without oxygen.
I always do any exercise on around 6 liters of oxygen so this was a little experiment to see how I would cope. We start the session with a 10 minute cardio warm up which starts off slow and gradually increases in difficulty. Things started off pretty good but then as the speed picked up my oxygen levels started to decrease, my head started to spin, my muscles were complaining and I had to stop. The ex ICU nurse who has just joined the respiratory team checked my oxygen saturation and heart rate which had dropped to 78/120 and advised me to put my oxygen on. Well I gave it a go but it was asking a lot, after putting the oxygen back on it was soon business as usual and I completed the session with no more hiccups.
I knew my experiment would end badly so I wasn't too disappointed and I'm still feeling good because you just can't keep a good guy down. I am still pushing things to see if I can get myself fit enough to be removed from the transplant list for Christmas but it'll have to be done wearing oxygen for exercise I guess.
It pays to not get too carried away but its also good to not be too afraid to find out where your limitations are. I know now so I'm happy with that, oh yes after that little wobble I managed 40 sit to stands in 2 minutes so there's no harm done and when I got home for some reason I remembered to phone Air Products and order some more oxygen cylinders. Don't be afraid to fail as that bump back to earth isn't too painful all you Healthunlockeders.
Tony
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dall05
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Hi Flibberti, risks have to be taken don't they if you want to improve your situation and there will be mistakes along the way. I am also in the very slow process of reducing my steroids from 20 mg per day. I'm down to 8 mg now and have not noticed any change yet. After being on 20 mg of prednisolone for 2 years its taken 6 months to get down to 8 mg under strict instruction from my GP and consultant. Slow but sure seems to be the way here and so far so good.
Tony xx
Excellent post thank you you are an inspiration ! TAD xx
Shortness of breath can lead to other illnesses. I now have Pulmonary Hypertenstion as well as the fibrosis. So do me a favour mate, please don't exercise without your oxygen on. As always I am in awe of the amount of walking you manage to do. Have a good weekend.
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Don't be afraid to fail as that bump back to earth isn't too painful all you Healthunlockeders. 
WE HAVE - NO REHAB ..Ahhhh!!
Oxygen doesn’t need to change you
Oxygen Therapy
