Monday 23rd September - My Oxygenated Life

 We're slowly settling down to having the two large oxygen concentrators - one upstairs in the bedroom, one downstairs between the sitting room and the dining room ends of the downstairs room.

Having the oxygen support on long leads has made such a difference. Even apparently sedentary activities such as knitting and sewing used to make me breathless, but now, with just 1 litre per minute, I can carry on without pausing. I hardly ever check my oxygen levels at home now. Just occasionally, like now, I twiddle the settings to 2 l/m, as sitting up and typing on the laptop needs a bit more for me to be comfortable. It's easy to tell; if I can't do whatever I am doing while breathing just through my nose, then I could probably do with a bit of a boost.

So long as I remember to dial it back down again afterwards! Many's the time I've settled down ready for sleep, and realized that a positive tornado of oxygen is whooshing up my nose because the machine's still set to 6 l/m from getting ready for bed...

And so long as I remember which machine I am using; I tend to use the inogen portable concentrator to go from the upstairs machine to the downstairs machine and vice versa, first thing in the mornings or last thing at bedtime. I have been known to switch one machine on, and the other off, but forget to swap cannulas... and then I start getting snappy and bad-tempered as my levels drop until one or other of us realise what I have done. 

Still, we're both getting more savvy, and more nimble at dodging the snake-like coils of green tubing that follow me in my wake. There was a tricky moment the other day when BB was carefully placing his foot at the same moment that I was twitching the tangle out of his way... 

I'm reminded of the 1985 film of 'A Room With A View'; I remember noticing how the women in the film had to 'manage' their long skirts, which all had a short train at the back. Every time they wanted to move they had to grab hold of the back of their skirt and twitch it - just like you see at the very beginning of this clip. Such an impractical and ungainly fashion. Well, that's me now, grabbing hold of the oxygen tubing and twitching it out of the way!

   Seriously though, home oxygen has proved to be a great enabler, and with the cylinders and portable concentrators I am more comfortable than I have been all year.