Oxygen Update

[JForbes26]

Hi to all you lovely lot,

Well, after getting over the shock of having to go onto oxygen, my mum is slowly coming round to accepting it and is feeling more positive.

To begin with, she was given cylinders that held 4 hours worth of O2 - she needed it only when walking at 2 lpm. The cylinders were too heavy for her to carry around, so I had to carry it when we went out - we did joke that it was like taking a toddler for a walk who had reins

Anyway, the respiratory nurse popped round yesterday to see how my mum was getting on and did a blood test (don't know the proper name for it, but she took blood from my mums ear) - her oxygen levels were going up and down whilst at rest (between 89 and 95) so she has asked my mum to stay on 1 lpm whilst at rest for up to 15 hours a day and put it on 3 lpm when out and about. She has had a concentrator delivered this morning to plug in to use whilst she's at home and has given her both a portable concentrator on a trolley as well as smaller cylinders that last 1.5hours. She has them all so she can trial them all out to see which she feels more comfortable with. We've been out food shopping this morning and wilst walking around and when she got home, her SATS stayed at 97%, so she's chuffed with that!

After checking her blood, everything seemed ok - carbon dioxide levels were fine and her kidney function (although she's diabetic) hadn't been affected, so the nurse was happy with that, as were we.

She also had to do a further sputum test - all along my mum kept saying her sputum was clear and sticky, however, when I saw it, it was green! She said "I thought they meant green like grass coloured green!" All this leads us to believe there is an actual infection going on and that she needs antibiotics! She says her sputum has been this colour for months! What am I going to do with her??!!

Anyway, hopefully when the results come through, it will show an infection and she'll be prescribed antibiotics which in turn will hopefully reduce the amount of oxygen she meeds?

Has anyone has their oxygen reduced when an infection has cleared?

I hope you're all keeping as well as can be ….. take care!

Love Julie (and her mum xx

[Hidden]

Great news - I have had the same problem with my husband and the colour of the mucus! Yes my husband uses much more oxygen when he has an infection - at the moment he is using it when he needs it rather than all the time. This morning we dropped our daughter at the airport - the stress of getting her there was ridiculous (I genuinely think she thought the aircraft would wait for her!) When we dropped her off we were all stressed and he needed his oxygen to walk into the airport but as soon as the stress levels reduced (she was in the departure lounge) he walked back to the car with no oxygen. Take good care - love to you and your Mum xx

[Watfordgirl]

Brilliant news!! Your mum has done and is doing so well, thanks in no small part to your help and support, I'm sure lots of us have been down the "No I'm not doing that. Take it away" road, only to smile a bit later and announce we're feeling better.

She probably might have an infection and will feel better still once that's gone. And, yes, you do need more oxygen when you have an infection and can manage with less when you don't have one.

Watch out, Julie - she'll be dancing on the table soon. Love you both, Sue x

[sarcoid123]

Your mum is so blessed to have you near her to help her. I am on oxygen with cylinders when I go out and I put my oxygen cylinder in a shopping trolley. I have one which has a pull-down seat (there are some for sale on the internet).