Chest infection and oxygen levels.

[falcon68]

I have a chest infection and have been given antibiotics. I have been feeling really tired and out of breath,for a while,so thought l would check my oxygen levels while l am moving around the house and compare them with when l am on the oxygen machine. They have gone down to 79 off the machine and 93 when on it. I rang the oxygen team and was told to stay on the machine all weekend and then phone the doctor on Monday. They said maybe it would improve with the antibiotics, if not l may have to go in to hospital. Has anyone been in a similar situation? Also my mouth feels dry all the time,sometimes difficult to swallow food.

[Ergendl]

My mouth is usually dry, so I keep a bottle of water by me and take sips whenever I need to; and I don't use oxygen, which I believe from other posts on here can cause dry mouth too. My dry mouth is always worse when I sleep relatively flat on my back. Sleeping with cushions to keep more upright can help if you can't sleep on your side.

When mouth dryness is really bad and it is affecting my sleep, I use Xylimelts. You can read about them on this page: xylimelts.co.uk/prescriptio...

Hoping the antibiotics help things improve for you. Do phone the doctor tomorrow and see what they recommend. Then let us know how you get on.

All the best.

[kathbrad3]

my oxygen levels can drop as low as 70 if I'm not on my oxygen then go back up when back on it it's normal I would think it your oxygen levels weren't dropping you wouldn't need the

[Kate124]

ihad a chest infection when I had covid in January. I was already on oxygen but went from 10 litres to 15 which I'm still on 24/7. If I move about my oxygen drops to 50s even with using the oxygen . Nightmare