sleeping with oxygen

[scooter70]

I have a difficult time transitioning from sleeping with oxygen (about 5 liters) to a "pulse" tank during the day.  I started sleeping with the oxygen about 10 days ago.  Before this, I was using oxygen during the day but certainly not as much as I feel I need it now.  I seem to be very weak now and have not experienced that level of weakness in the past.

Has anyone experienced this?

[National Jewish Health]

The best advice I can give you is that you seek consultation with a lung specialist (pulmonologist) for a complete evaluation of your oxygen needs (sleep, awake but sedentary, with exercise) and the optimum mode of administration of supplemental oxygen during each of these circumstances.  5  L/minute supplemental oxygen, if administered by cannula (rather than by a mask) , is high flow oxygen and it should be determined with certainty that you actually require this much oxygen.  If so, your physician may want to consider trans-tracheal oxygen.

If on the other hand, 5 L/minute is actually what is required to provide adequate arterial oxygen saturation, then pulse oxygen may not be adequate for your oxygen needs or, may simply  feel that way, given that you are accustomed to high flow continuous oxygen for long stretches of time (during the night).  

One other possibility to explain the daytime change, “Before this, I was using oxygen during the day but certainly not as much as I feel I need it now.”     is that, for some reason (that needs to be diagnosed, by your doctor(s)without delay) your oxygen needs have recently changed.  This, in turn, could also explain your weakness.

Your oxygen flows and mode (continuous vs. pulse) may be need to be changed and these changes should be made by a physician, expert in the principles of supplemental oxygen delivery.

Good luck