RT' s often come to our rescue...when we are ' drowning' for air.
Top 21 Respiratory Therapy blogs of 2008http://respiratorytherapycave.blogspot.com/2008/12/top-respiratory-therapy-blogs
This is respiratory theapists blog on their thoughts and job���perhaps about patients too.
Jeff Whitnack' s RT Pagehttp://home.pacbell.net/whitnack/<<You need to check this page out from time to time to remind yourself of the importance oxygenating COPD patients regardless of that antediluvian Hypoxic Drive Theory.20.>>> then read how Mark Mangus
explains CO2 retainers:. "Folks whose COPD advances enough that their ability to ' ventilate' (the ' mechanical' act of moving air into and out of the lungs) becomes sufficiently impaired and who have a lot of "trapped air" (air they cannot expel from breath to breath, like an over-inflated balloon) become "CO2-retainers"; that is, they cannot ' exchange' enough fresh air with each breath they take to sufficiently remove CO2 from the air that is held within their lungs. While they can live quite nicely because the body has special mechanisms to ' neutralize' the effect of the retained CO2, they more readily ' get into trouble' if their tenuous balance of breathing becomes inadequate, for whatever reason."
"When they get to the point that"[ the patient] " reached, their CO2 can go way up high - - - because their "blood pH", another critically important component of stability with CO2 retention, falls below a certain level -- - and like Humpty-Dumpty falling off the wall, they slip into "acute respiratory failure", a serious and potentially fatal condition if not detected and effectively treated"���..[the patient' s]" description of ' getting the carbon D-oxide' was actually characterizing her predicament of having a seriously elevated carbon dioxide level in her blood. But, for it to be a problem and to cause the havoc with her breathing that it did, her pH had to ALSO be seriously out of range and in trouble. The BiPAPthey treated her with pushed her carbon dioxide back down to acceptable levels while more importantly, raising her pH back to a normal range in the process."
"THAT' s what constitutes ' resolution' of the crisis and a return to stability. When "she" uses her BiPAPat home, she is supporting her ventilation so as to (hopefully) thwart any chance of sliding into acute
respiratory failure or to succumb to continued increases in her carbon dioxide.
In your shoes, you can determine if you' re a CO2-retainer and also at similar risk by asking your doctor. If you' ve had blood gas analysis during your ' usual' state of health and stability, that will tell you if
you are a CO2-retiner. NOTHING else and no other test can tell you that information. There are a couple of tests that can hint at an answer, even indirectly suggest that you are one, but they are NOT exact
or definitive as is an arterial blood gas. Lastly, your CO2 ' can' be measured without an arterial blood gas through a technique called ' transcutaneous measurement' . BUT, few hospitals and even fewer doctors offices tend to have the equipment to make such measurements, (at least in adults, with any accuracy)."Responses reflect my positions and opinions alone and do not necessarily represent the positions or opinions of Christus Santa Rosa Health Care
Mark W. Mangus, Sr., BSRC, RRT, RPFT, FAARC
Pulmonary Rehabilitation Coordinator Christus Santa Rosa Health Care
San Antonio,TX
.BREATHE LA COPDResearch Study [LA Center for Healthy Lungs medical research atUCLA]featured onKABChttp://www.breathela.org/news/breathe-la-copd-research-study-featured-kabcand
my exercise...keep movingroxlyngcd@comcast.net
1 Comment
RT' s often come to our rescue...when we are ' drowning' for air.
Top 21 Respiratory Therapy blogs of 2008http://respiratorytherapycave.blogspot.com/2008/12/top-respiratory-therapy-blogs
This is respiratory theapists blog on their thoughts and job���perhaps about patients too.
Jeff Whitnack' s RT Pagehttp://home.pacbell.net/whitnack/<<You need to check this page out from time to time to remind yourself of the importance oxygenating COPD patients regardless of that antediluvian Hypoxic Drive Theory.20.>>> then read how Mark Mangus
explains CO2 retainers:. "Folks whose COPD advances enough that their ability to ' ventilate' (the ' mechanical' act of moving air into and out of the lungs) becomes sufficiently impaired and who have a lot of "trapped air" (air they cannot expel from breath to breath, like an over-inflated balloon) become "CO2-retainers"; that is, they cannot ' exchange' enough fresh air with each breath they take to sufficiently remove CO2 from the air that is held within their lungs. While they can live quite nicely because the body has special mechanisms to ' neutralize' the effect of the retained CO2, they more readily ' get into trouble' if their tenuous balance of breathing becomes inadequate, for whatever reason."
"When they get to the point that"[ the patient] " reached, their CO2 can go way up high - - - because their "blood pH", another critically important component of stability with CO2 retention, falls below a certain level -- - and like Humpty-Dumpty falling off the wall, they slip into "acute respiratory failure", a serious and potentially fatal condition if not detected and effectively treated"���..[the patient' s]" description of ' getting the carbon D-oxide' was actually characterizing her predicament of having a seriously elevated carbon dioxide level in her blood. But, for it to be a problem and to cause the havoc with her breathing that it did, her pH had to ALSO be seriously out of range and in trouble. The BiPAPthey treated her with pushed her carbon dioxide back down to acceptable levels while more importantly, raising her pH back to a normal range in the process."
"THAT' s what constitutes ' resolution' of the crisis and a return to stability. When "she" uses her BiPAPat home, she is supporting her ventilation so as to (hopefully) thwart any chance of sliding into acute
respiratory failure or to succumb to continued increases in her carbon dioxide.
In your shoes, you can determine if you' re a CO2-retainer and also at similar risk by asking your doctor. If you' ve had blood gas analysis during your ' usual' state of health and stability, that will tell you if
you are a CO2-retiner. NOTHING else and no other test can tell you that information. There are a couple of tests that can hint at an answer, even indirectly suggest that you are one, but they are NOT exact
or definitive as is an arterial blood gas. Lastly, your CO2 ' can' be measured without an arterial blood gas through a technique called ' transcutaneous measurement' . BUT, few hospitals and even fewer doctors offices tend to have the equipment to make such measurements, (at least in adults, with any accuracy)."Responses reflect my positions and opinions alone and do not necessarily represent the positions or opinions of Christus Santa Rosa Health Care
Mark W. Mangus, Sr., BSRC, RRT, RPFT, FAARC
Pulmonary Rehabilitation Coordinator Christus Santa Rosa Health Care
San Antonio,TX
.BREATHE LA COPDResearch Study [LA Center for Healthy Lungs medical research atUCLA]featured onKABChttp://www.breathela.org/news/breathe-la-copd-research-study-featured-kabcand
my exercise...keep movingroxlyngcd@comcast.net