Oxygen = Happiness

My oxygen arrived today!!!

The original plan was for it to arrive last Friday so that it would be here for when I arrived on Sunday. However, when I got here, there were 5 cylinders (which I use when I leave the house) but NO concentrator and NO tubing.

The concentrator is a massive machine that gives me oxygen while I'm sleeping. So Sunday night I went without...what makes it suck even more is that the noise from the concentrator makes me fall asleep. Luckily I was so exhausted last night that it didn't matter. Plus the Miami/Boston game did the trick - take that Miami!!

I called my oxygen company first thing this morning and buddy showed up around 12. Buddy was loud; he must equate O2 dependency with hard of hearing.

I can hear you!! It's my lungs that are the enemy, not my eardrums!


My O2 sats were 92% at rest and without wearing oxygen. Then we went for a stroll down the hallway, again without oxygen. I stayed in the low 80's and at one point dropped to 79%! I asked buddy "At what point would a person pass out?" to which he responded "The last time I saw a number in the 70's was when I was working in the ICU and I called for intubation and almost called for a code".

I told you I was super human!!!

To be honest, I was talking a bit a this point. He said "You're going to need to stop talking", to which I replied "Is this your way of asking me to shut up?" I really enjoy throwing that kind of stuff out there, especially when the person doesn't know my sense of humor. It allows us to understand each other much faster.

In all seriousness, he told me that I should refrain from talking while walking. Haa! Ok buddy, ok! And in all seriousness, I explained to him that, if we're being realistic, that's NOT going to happen. Who really wants to go around not talking? Yuck. Please.

One cylinder lasts me a very short time. We went grocery shopping today. We walked .93 kms to the store and around the store. By the time we were finished, and waiting for a cab, my O2 had run dry. I'm going to need a lot more cylinders than I had in NS. There I drove everywhere. Here, you walk and walk and walk and walk. And when you're done doing that...you walk some more.

 Tonight we are meeting up with a bunch of other furry baby owners at the park. It's comforting to have familiar faces in this city. Griffin gets to sniff a lot of butts too, so his life is five star.

Tomorrow I meet with the surgeon! I hope he's ready for me - in my life, jokes about my crappy lungs are customary.  If you can't change it, have fun with it :)

Here's to a night filled with concentrator noise and beautiful oxygen streaming through my body!