I'm using an oximeter and I think I'm learning better to use it.
Mr rat is in the vet hospital as I recounted in another thread: Not Quite Ready For Progesterone
I had to use to oximeter, which gives me readings of blood oxygenation saturation levels (SpO2) and heart rate.
Because the rat was having high heart rate readings, and arrhythmic, I had to use bag breathing for an hour or longer in attempting to lower the heart rate and to correct the irregular heartbeat. The oximeter was very useful as it gave me a real-time update on the effect of bag breathing. Especially since bag breathing is not usually done for a long time, I wanted to be able to stop its use when the oximeter indicates something amiss - like say, oxygen saturation going down, or the heart rate getting faster. Of course, I was only observing the reaction of the rat during the bag breathing period, like the breathing rate.
The rat was on vet hospital oxygen, and it was used to ensure high oxygenation (or so it seemed). The SpO2 reading was always high, at 98 or 99. This was like an assurance that the rat was getting enough oxygen.
I could either supplement the bag breathing with hospital oxygen or without. When I supplemented with hospital oxygen, I saw no improvement in the rat's heart rate, although the SpO2 reading was consistently high. When I removed the hospital oxygen, I observed an improvement in the heart rate, although SpO2 readings were lower.
This made me decide to do bag breathing without the hospital oxygen for the hour-long bag breathing. This really is an experiment, as I don't know if I'll be overdoing the bag breathing and will be creating a crisis condition. I decided that if the SpO2 would go below 90, I would stop bag breathing.
I was able to finish the hour-long bag breathing. It was successful in lowering the rat's heart rate to half. The rat's breathing rate went down a relaxed comfortable 24 breaths/minute. But what I learned from this was to treat the SpO2 reading as not something that is static, and not as something where a higher value is always better. I had to see the fluctuation of SpO2 reading from 90 to 97 in the course of the hour-long bag breathing as I would a bus with passengers.
If say 100 is the maximum number of passengers that can board a bus, the bus would be considered full at 100 passengers. If no passenger can deboard the bus at all, the bus would always be full. A bus that is always full looks good, but if no passenger is able to deboard at the destination though, is the bus really doing its job?
If the bus is your blood vessels, and the passengers are oxygen, an SpO2 reading that is always near saturation could mean that no (or not much) oxygen is being delivered to your cells.
I think this is what's happening when we are given oxygen from hospital tanks. The oximeter would make us think we are getting the full benefit of oxygenation, because it tells us that our blood is saturated with oxygen. It does not tell us whether the oxygen is really being delivered to the cells. In a situation where blood CO2 is low, and oxygen is not being fully distributed to cells, the SpO2 reading could be high, and we could be easily lulled into the safety of thinking we are getting enough oxygenation to our cells. Yet we struggle with our breathing, our heart rate is fast, and our breath rate is fast. And certainly, our hospital doctors just go through the motions.
The oximeter is a nice tool, but we need to be aware of putting the readings into the proper context. During the hour-long baf breathing, the SpO2 and heart rate showed fluctuations, with the SpO2 going from 90 to 97 and back, and the heart rate would slowly go down but not in a straight line but fluctuating where each succeeding high is a lower high and where each succeeding low is a lower low.
I would never have known how to use an oximeter in this way, but I thought of sharing this. Of course, I could be wrong in thinking this way, so I welcome your comments on this.
Mr rat is in the vet hospital as I recounted in another thread: Not Quite Ready For Progesterone
I had to use to oximeter, which gives me readings of blood oxygenation saturation levels (SpO2) and heart rate.
Because the rat was having high heart rate readings, and arrhythmic, I had to use bag breathing for an hour or longer in attempting to lower the heart rate and to correct the irregular heartbeat. The oximeter was very useful as it gave me a real-time update on the effect of bag breathing. Especially since bag breathing is not usually done for a long time, I wanted to be able to stop its use when the oximeter indicates something amiss - like say, oxygen saturation going down, or the heart rate getting faster. Of course, I was only observing the reaction of the rat during the bag breathing period, like the breathing rate.
The rat was on vet hospital oxygen, and it was used to ensure high oxygenation (or so it seemed). The SpO2 reading was always high, at 98 or 99. This was like an assurance that the rat was getting enough oxygen.
I could either supplement the bag breathing with hospital oxygen or without. When I supplemented with hospital oxygen, I saw no improvement in the rat's heart rate, although the SpO2 reading was consistently high. When I removed the hospital oxygen, I observed an improvement in the heart rate, although SpO2 readings were lower.
This made me decide to do bag breathing without the hospital oxygen for the hour-long bag breathing. This really is an experiment, as I don't know if I'll be overdoing the bag breathing and will be creating a crisis condition. I decided that if the SpO2 would go below 90, I would stop bag breathing.
I was able to finish the hour-long bag breathing. It was successful in lowering the rat's heart rate to half. The rat's breathing rate went down a relaxed comfortable 24 breaths/minute. But what I learned from this was to treat the SpO2 reading as not something that is static, and not as something where a higher value is always better. I had to see the fluctuation of SpO2 reading from 90 to 97 in the course of the hour-long bag breathing as I would a bus with passengers.
If say 100 is the maximum number of passengers that can board a bus, the bus would be considered full at 100 passengers. If no passenger can deboard the bus at all, the bus would always be full. A bus that is always full looks good, but if no passenger is able to deboard at the destination though, is the bus really doing its job?
If the bus is your blood vessels, and the passengers are oxygen, an SpO2 reading that is always near saturation could mean that no (or not much) oxygen is being delivered to your cells.
I think this is what's happening when we are given oxygen from hospital tanks. The oximeter would make us think we are getting the full benefit of oxygenation, because it tells us that our blood is saturated with oxygen. It does not tell us whether the oxygen is really being delivered to the cells. In a situation where blood CO2 is low, and oxygen is not being fully distributed to cells, the SpO2 reading could be high, and we could be easily lulled into the safety of thinking we are getting enough oxygenation to our cells. Yet we struggle with our breathing, our heart rate is fast, and our breath rate is fast. And certainly, our hospital doctors just go through the motions.
The oximeter is a nice tool, but we need to be aware of putting the readings into the proper context. During the hour-long baf breathing, the SpO2 and heart rate showed fluctuations, with the SpO2 going from 90 to 97 and back, and the heart rate would slowly go down but not in a straight line but fluctuating where each succeeding high is a lower high and where each succeeding low is a lower low.
I would never have known how to use an oximeter in this way, but I thought of sharing this. Of course, I could be wrong in thinking this way, so I welcome your comments on this.
