Oxygen Therapy Problems

[vader922]

I have moderate copd and in July a pulse oximetry was done at night only. Oxygen was ordered for night time use at 2 lpm due to SP02 percentage being below 89% for periods of time during the night. Day time my pulse ox typically reads 95-99%. I have no idea if I am a co2 retainer or not and there has been no mention of this by my doctor and no recent blood gas tests have been performed. My questions:
1. What would cause me to feel nauseated when using the oxygen? Some nights it starts almost immediately after turning the concentrator on and I just can not tolerate the headache and nausea so refuse to sleep under it.
I sometimes wake up with dull ache in my chest after sleeping under the oxygen at night. Also my body feels heavy and a bit numb when I first wake up after sleeping under the oxygen.  I keep wondering if I am getting too much oxygen so I confess I frequently do not sleep under it due to these strange symptoms when I do.
If my pulse ox remains at above 90 percent during the night, would sleeping under 2lpm cause these symptoms?
What causes the nausea?
Would it be dangerous to sleep under 2 lpm if my pulse ox remained above 94 during the night? Looking at the oximetry report, it appears that it did remain at least 94 for over half the night.

I do continue to smoke unfortunately.

2. Since my pulse ox readings are usually above 95-98 during the daytime, would the lower pulse ox at night indicate it is heart related more than strictly lung related?
I ask this because I have a lot of palpitations, flutters, erratic and irregular pulse situations that have not been diagnosed by my doctor.

[National Jewish Health]

Your symptoms, including nausea, are extremely unlikely to be oxygen related.  There is apparently a good reason why the oxygen, at night, was recommended and you should discuss this with the doctor who prescribed it.  If your oxygen is at least 94 half the night that means it is lower the other half.  Nocturnal desaturation has nothing to do with your heart function.  If your saturation is >94% during the day while breathing room air, you are not a carbon dioxide retainer.

If you are having a lot of palpitations you will probably need ambulatory heart monitoring to sort this out.

If you indeed to have “moderate COPD”, you should do everything in your power to stop smoking immediately.