O2 concentrator coming----have questions

[ameriken]

I'm still going with 4-5 liters/minute every night and I think I feel much better.
Is there any reason to not breathe this much oxygen every night? this is very different from hyperbaric high pressure oxygen which has more risks

I don't know of any adverse effects from 4 or 5 liters, in fact from the first page of this thread Goofproof wrote:

Most doctors set you at 2 LPM O2 bleed into XPAP, that doesn't make any sense to me as most of the O2 is blead out in the XPAP flow, so I set mine at 4 LPM into XPAP of 15 CM. It never killed me or anything else. Back in those days my daytime O2, was 90 or below without added O2. Now if I'm lucky I am at 92 to 93 during the day without added O2, and no longer use added O2 at all. Jim

I've bumped mine to 2.5. I may go higher myself. Waking up in the morning is still a bit hard to do and it still takes me a while to get going, though once I am up and around I am far better than before, more alert, more talkative, and have better focus and concentration. I can actually hold down a conversation and play a good game of chess.

It's just that damned wake up time and the next hour or two.

[happysleeper]

I'm still going with 4-5 liters/minute every night and I think I feel much better.
Is there any reason to not breathe this much oxygen every night?

It's generally not a good idea to go higher than your prescribed oxygen flow level if you have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Here's why:

People without COPD are triggered to breathe by high CO2 levels. CO2 accumulates in the body and is normally outgassed through healthy lungs. But with COPD, the lungs have a level of illness, so the body has such frequent high CO2 levels that the CO2 sensors are thought to "burn out". People with COPD are therefore mainly triggered to breathe by having having low oxygen saturations (hypoxic drive).

BUT, if a person with COPD in an unmonitored situation (like at home, not in a hospital) uses oxygen greater than their physician has prescribed,(generally prescribed at 1-2 Liters/minute), they can take away their drive to breathe by taking in too much oxygen. They can actually risk hypoventilation, or not breathing enough. We don't need that on top of sleep apnea! That's why they need a physician to control their oxygen levels.

Here are some references:http://www.pennardfr.org.uk/respiratory ... 0drive.htm
http://www.nda.ox.ac.uk/wfsa/html/u12/u1203_03.htm

Glad things are going well, Ken!

Happy Sleeper

[sickwithapnea17]

thanks so much.
so if I am getting mostly hypopneas on my bipapst then does that mean my O2 setting is too high?
I really feel better on 5 liters though, more refreshed in the morning but still not back to normal

[happysleeper]

I believe that you'd be more likely to see central apneas (no breath in, as it hasn't been triggered), rather than hypopneas. So you'd have less breaths per minute than you may actually need to keep your oxygen saturation in a safe range for your brain/heart, etc.

My sleep doc is a combination of pulmonologist (lung specialist) and sleep specialist. I would suggest asking a pulmonologist.

Happy Sleeper.