Oxygen Coverage

Monday night I got smart and didn't bother fighting the deSATing issues for the night, he had deSATed enough by 11:30pm that we knew it wasn't worth readjusting him all night ... and so we stuffed the oxygen on and got some sleep for the night ... as much sleep as a person can get on a pull out bed in a hospital.

Tuesday we addressed the issues of oxygen again. We had thought the recent deSAT problems were only due to the anesthetic, but an x-ray done Tuesday morning showed his lungs were back to the same condition they were on June 6 (the most recent x-ray prior to the anesthetic) ... so the anesthetic does not explain why he is deSATing again after having a period of doing okay. There is no point in leaving the hospital to go home and have to move him all night long to try keep him in proper saturation ranges, so we requested to try again to qualify for oxygen coverage ... thus meaning we could go home since we have a loaner SATs monitor until they get straighted out the quotes for our own monitor.

In order to have coverage for home oxygen you have to deSAT below 88% for a full 2 minutes. The computer prints out the deSAT levels and then you have to continue to print out 3 full minutes of proper SATs using oxygen in order to prove that oxygen actually helps the situation. Previously we had gotten a record of him deSATing but had not realized we need the extra printout of him SATing properly. So our task for last night was to get a proper printout.

I knew it would be a bit of a challenge because he bounces back and forth pretty quickly. Well just our luck he spent the whole night SATing at 88% ... normally under 90% and we put him on oxygen ... but this time we needed lower yet. He would hang out in the 85% -88% area, but each time the level hit 88% that meant the printer stopped. Finally at 6:30 am I was ready to give up since I had gotten no sleep listening to the machine beep off all night and watching it whenever it beeped long enough. He had SATed low all night which meant he wouldn't be much good for the day, so I thought I'd just turn the oxygen on for the last hour or so of his sleep ... and wouldn't you know, just at that point he managed to stay low enough for the full 2 minutes, turn on the oxygen and finish printing the rest and we were done. Boy am I glad we don't have to go through another sleepless night trying to get that done.

So the paperwork is filled out and within the next day or so we should have our own oxygen for at home ... yahoo ... one more hurdle overcome!!

Now if they could just get things straighted out with ordering a monitor. The rep. advised that she sent an urgent message out to have this taken care of yesterday, so hopefully soon. It seems that the lower quote we got was directly from the monitor company, but in the meantime the sales person has changed and there seems to be some trouble getting the same quote back. Normally monitors are purchased through a Home Care company ... and they mark them up double the price, thus the difference in prices we were quoted ... all the same montiors, just depends on where you go. So patience will hopefully mean cheaper.