Well after all my moaning and groaning and threats of complaints i finally got the date for my ambulatory O2 assessment(6 min walk test?)brought forward from the end of August to tomorrow,Whoopee organised transport to hospital(my car)and ready to go,
Whoops phone call today from Respiratory team instead of an outpatient appointment they are coming on a home visit to do it.Now as you are probably aware i tend to do a little research on these things and to the best of my Knowledge the BTS guidelines mention 20 meter corridors or min !0 meter corridor space to do this walk test complete with Marker cones and a seat if i need to sit down.
As good as my DIY skills are and my brother is an Architect,Knocking up a 10 meter extension on my 3 bed semi,let to mention planning permission and building regs even under the guidance of the Grand Designs team is not quite doable overnight.
So i have compromised, moved furniture and now have a 5 meter indoor path so maybe we can get by with that.I did a short trial run starting with resting Sats of 86% which is about normal when i am shifting furniture and managed a 3 min walk before tripping up over Scruffy the cat who,s Sats were raised immediately by the abrupt intrusion into her 23 hr sleep Pattern.Alarmingly my Sats had dropped to 72% but i am a quick to recover and within minutes i was back up into the high 80,s.
I repeated this exercise with my illegal portable concentrater ,3 mins was my limit again although without the hazard of Scruffy who has fled into the Garden,Unfortunately my Sats did not improve with O2,but i was not as breathless and also my muscles were not so tired.Perhaps i would need to increase the flow rate on the machine.
The reason i am writing this boring diatribe,though i do get an element of excitement in my experimentation and can appreciate the ridiculous concept of home diagnosis and treatment it that it has almost become an essential necessity in certain NHS trust areas,(like mine)
i wonder if i will be expected to provide transport for the nurse to attend?I can borrow the cones from some nearby roadworks and possibly we can use my own O2 concentrater if we want to do recommended comparisons against air. Perhaps a cup of tea will be a nice Anesthesia for her as i verbally dissect her department.Seriously i will not abuse her as she is only a cog in the system and i will be as polite and charming as normal.
Scruffy will be instructed to vacate the premises or Fe;ix as good as it looks,doubly delicious rations will be withdrawn.
Rather looking forward to my mini adventure and when it all goes pear shaped as invariably it will.I imagine that Scruffy will end up with the O2 and i will be on cat food.at least i will be able to come back and recount the fiasco to my good friends on here.And we can all have a good laugh about it.
Wish me luck friends.love to all
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skischool
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I've been having home visits for 02 assessment (hof) for a few years,usually every 3 or 6 months and they test blood gases. Only once have l done a walk test, up and down my hallway. Perhaps l'm too far gone!
Wishing you all the luck and all the best, not to mention all hopes for poor Scruffy's mental health.
Perhaps you could walk up and down the garden, having duly warned or removed all resident gnomes ?
Seriously, if your resting sats are in the mid 80s, I don't think you're going to have too much difficulty failing the 6MWT. I know there's not supposed to be a pass or fail but sometimes failing is good
I'm terrified of 6MWTs and do my best to avoid them. I've now been avoiding them since November 2014 so I suspect I won't get away with it much longer.
You have a great attitude to life, it will stand you in good stead. Look forward to hearing how it all goes, tomorrow.
thank you,you are now the official recipient of Scruffy in my will.how would you like her packaged and delivered,i hope you have Amazon prime as she doesn't do 2nd class postage.xx
LOL, that's really made me laugh. My brother once offered to send me their cat in a flat pack, with no instructions for re-assembling. He has a very similar sense of humour as yours.
The six minute walk test is a distance of 30m, chair at start point cone or marker at other end. Some also have 3m markers.
The 10/20 metres are deemed unreliable due to constant shuffle when turning. There can be a 14% reduction in performance.
If you are being tested for Ambulitory oxygen therapy, then walking around you home in a normal manner would be more realistic and give a true reading of your needs.
Mine was done in a corridor, when dropped to 83, tried 1lpm then 2 LPM
Six monthly, now annual check ups are done at hospital, that is six minute walk test.
Stone i was just going by the BTs guidelines as of 2016 with regard to minimum acceptable distances in a hospital setting.i would have to disagree that any realistic assessment could be done in the home environment for me personaly.in my case the whole idea of ambulatory O2 is to go out into the world and try to function to the best of my ability,that would increase my muscle strength and lung capacity and consequently improve my health.Perhaps i am being overly ambitious?i totaly agree that lpm.s have to be ascertained by individual response to O2 intake and certainly i am being conservative in my experiments because i am not sure of the volatility of possible CO2 retension.To a certain extent i believe we all individually adapt to certain O2 levels and what would appear to be frightening and alarming to some are normal for others.obviously the gold standard is have as much O2 saturation needed to promote life and avoid damage to organs, i appear to have digressed somewhat.thank you for your advice.
Poor Scruffy my backside,she lives a life of Luxury,From neglected stray to complete Madam within 2 years.Varied diet.normally only likes the most expensive Nosh and sleeps on my put you up bed having trashed 3 bedrooms upstairs.and retextured all carpets and generally composted garden into a no grow area.Apart from that she is a very lovable cheeky creature and will eventually inherit all my wealth when she has exhausted all of my O2 levels looking after her.xx
Not a 'boring diatribe' - an amusing account. Just what we need to start the day off in the right mood. Hope all goes well with your test, look forward to reading about that later, 'hopefully' written in similarly light hearted fashion. Regards to Scruffy and maybe a few Dreamies for her, if all goes well?
My oxygen assessment consisted of walking round the hospital with varying amounts of oxygen with a very fancy finger tip monitor accompanied by a doctor. Not a 6mwt. The next morning I had a phone call Hello this is your oxygen supplier. It was delivered three days later. It works well, I walked through b&q to the plant section easily, couldn't have done it without.
It will probably be all over by now skischool, I hope it all went (goes) well. Good idea to have it done at home where your relaxed, and it saves all that faffing around! Do let us know the outcome. Xx
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Scruffy rules! Good luck Skischool, look forward to the sequel. 
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