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Signs That Show You Need A Portable Oxygen Machine
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Such people might need artificially-provided oxygen (commonly known as oxygen therapy).
This supplemental oxygen can help restore the oxygen levels of people with respiratory diseases to normal. This improves their ability to breathe and, more specifically, to walk without feeling shortness of breath.
Oxygen therapy helps to provide people with respiratory diseases with additional oxygen. While you can get the oxygen tank at the hospital, it is also possible to get a portable oxygen tank for personal use. This makes the oxygen easier to access and also less expensive than that of the hospital.
In a person with healthy lungs, the lungs absorb oxygen from the atmosphere when the person breathes in.
However, in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a general term for a group of respiratory diseases, the lungs can’t absorb enough oxygen, which drops the required oxygen level in the body. However, what are the symptoms you experience if you have an oxygen shortage in your body system? Here are the signs you’ll notice to know if you need a portable oxygen machine:
Such people might need artificially-provided oxygen (commonly known as oxygen therapy).
This supplemental oxygen can help restore the oxygen levels of people with respiratory diseases to normal. This improves their ability to breathe and, more specifically, to walk without feeling shortness of breath.
Oxygen therapy helps to provide people with respiratory diseases with additional oxygen. While you can get the oxygen tank at the hospital, it is also possible to get a portable oxygen tank for personal use. This makes the oxygen easier to access and also less expensive than that of the hospital.
In a person with healthy lungs, the lungs absorb oxygen from the atmosphere when the person breathes in.
However, in patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), a general term for a group of respiratory diseases, the lungs can’t absorb enough oxygen, which drops the required oxygen level in the body. However, what are the symptoms you experience if you have an oxygen shortage in your body system? Here are the signs you’ll notice to know if you need a portable oxygen machine:
1. If Your Heart Races While Walking
When we expend energy in activities such as walking, more oxygen tends to be used. If the brain senses an inadequacy of oxygen in the body, it sends a signal to the heart to beat faster and pump more blood with oxygen. Hence the heart rate goes up. Some other symptoms that work in and with this are dizziness, sweating, and heart palpitations.
2. Your Fingers Turn Blue
This usually happens in extreme cases, where the oxygen levels are really depleted. This state of depleted oxygen causes the fingers to take on a blue tint. This ‘blue fingers’ condition is known as cyanosis. The fingers are not blue because of the absence of blood in them. However, it is due to the depleted level of oxygen in the blood. Hence, if your fingers do turn blue, it may be a sign you need a portable oxygen machine.
3. If Your Feets Gets Swollen
The feet getting swollen could be caused by a reason as simple as wearing tight shoes. However, when there’s no apparent cause, you probably need to see a doctor.
What causes swollen feet is the low supply of oxygen to organs such as the heart, liver, and kidney. These organs need oxygen to pump blood, filter toxins, and liquids respectively. The low supply of oxygen makes it hard for these organs to function properly. Hence, this causes a build-up of these fluids in the body extremities.
4. Your Walking Oxygen Blood Saturation is Below 88%
This symptom is not something you can detect on your own. In most cases, you must have experienced some other general symptoms before experiencing this. After reporting such symptoms to your doctor, he might ask you to take the walking oxygen blood saturation test. The test involves walking for 6 minutes with a pulse oximeter placed on your finger. The pulse oximeter measures oxygen saturation in the blood. The normal range is between 95% – 100%. However, if yours is below 88%, you might need an oxygen tank.
Some other symptoms that might be noticed include coughing or wheezing, sweating, or confusion. If you experience any of these symptoms above, they are probable signs that you need a portable oxygen tank. However, before you just get one, it’s strongly advised to see your doctor first.
Cost of a Portable Oxygen Machine
There is a vast variety of different portable oxygen machines. They differ in size, weight, battery life and functionality. Some can connect to your smart device while others have complex features that are designed for very specific conditions. Therefore, it’s crucial to conduct research on the right device for you. As a general rule of thumb, most devices cost between $2,000 to $3,000, however second hand devices might be cheaper and some of the newer models could cost much more than $3,000
A method for reducing the costs of a portable oxygen machine is through medical/Medicare insurance. For some conditions a portable oxygen machine could be a preventative measure to avoid serious damages which would cost the medical insurance company much more. Therefore, for some conditions and with the evidence of medical documents it is possible to subsidize the costs of the portable oxygen machine.
