COPD - Oxygen Sat levels

[puddy68]

Thank you to my COPD friends who have been so patient with me. I really appreciate it. I appreciate you tolerating my raving when my anxiety disorder kicks in, and the constant questions I've been hitting you all with. The more I'm reading from you lovely people, the better I'm beginning to feel [re anxiety]. Knowledge [especially knowledge coming from people who have this disease] really makes all the difference. I do have another couple of questions [once again, I'm so sorry]. The more I learn about this disease [actually, would it be more accurate to call it a condition to be managed?], the more questions seem to raise their head:

- 02 sats [not sure if this is the right term] - I'm at FEV 1 50% [moderate COPD?], and my O2 sat always seem to hover around 93. When I was in hospital with pneumonia, this still seemed to be constant, although if I walked about, it might drop to the high 80's. It came back up to 93ish very quickly though once I sat down again. My question is this - I'm starting my pulmonary rehab program next week and would like to build up my aerobic capacity [mainly by walking at this stage] also. Can this rehab and walking improve:

- my sat levels

- the gas exchanges that go on in my lungs [I think too much CO2 can cause shortness of breath on exertion?]

Thank you all so much again. God Bless.

[Ergendl]

Pulmonary Rehab should help improve your exercise tolerance and your muscle fitness. This means the oxygen you breathe in will be used more effectively. So you will need less oxygen to perform the same task, and you will be able to do a little bit more than before with the same amount of oxygen.

Each of us is individual and reacts to PR in our own way. It will help you get the best out of what you have and should improve what you are capable of doing. But to what level, I can't say.

Hope this helps.

[Coughingalltheway]

This short video explains why your levels drop and when to be concerned. Hope that it helps x

youtube.com/watch?v=muq_FnD...(Not working as expected?)

[PaperQueen]

I think others have been able to answer your questions, certainly better than I can, but one thing to stress is that one of the great things about PR is that you can ask all these questions from people who really understand lung conditions and are not in a tearing hurry to see the next patient. Hope you get as much out of it as I did. Good luck.