If you’re on oxygen therapy, you’ve probably been cared for by a respiratory therapist. Here at American Medical Supply and Repair, we have respiratory therapists on staff to help our customers choose the oxygen concentrator that’s right for them and use it properly. Because when you breathe easier, we breathe easier!

Respiratory therapists have either a 2-year associate’s degree or a 4-year bachelor’s degree. Upon graduation, they take a test to become Certified Respiratory Therapists, or CRTs. If they pass 2 additional exams, they can become Registered Respiratory Therapists, or RRTs.

How do I know if I have pneumonia?

It can mimic the flu, and you can get some strains of the flu even if you’ve gotten the flu shot. If you’ve gotten a pneumonia shot, you most likely have a nasty virus like the flu, or a strain of the flu that wasn’t covered in the vaccination you got this year. If you are not up to date on your pneumonia shot, it’s possible for you to come down with it. If you have flu symptoms that last longer than 10 days and if some symptoms are becoming worse, such as a painful cough involving a lot of mucus, you may have pneumonia and you should see a doctor right away.

How do doctors determine if you have pneumonia?

First, your doctor will ask you questions, such as how long you’ve had these symptoms, if you are in any pain, whether or not you smoke, which medications you’ve been taking for the symptoms, and if you’ve recently been around anyone who has been sick.

Next, he or she will listen to your lungs. If you have pneumonia, he or she will be able to hear bubbling, rumbling or wheezing sounds as your lungs work to move air through the mucus. If there is pneumonia, it will be rather noisy in your lungs and there may also be areas where the air isn’t moving through at all.

Your doctor might also use a pulse oximeter to check the level of oxygen in your lungs, expecially if you have a lung disease such as asthma or COPD, which can already cause this to drop. Your blood oxygen level will help to determine what kind of treatment you will receive to help you get well again and bring your oxygen level back to normal.

If your doctor still suspects that you have pneumonia after these examinations, he or she will order a chest x-ray. An x-ray will give a visual reveal of the pneumonia, but it will not determine if the pneumonia is bacterial or viral.

A blood test called a CBC, or complete blood count will measure the level of while blood cells in your blood, which will reveal whether or not the pneumonia is a bacterial infection. If there are more while blood cells than usual, it means they have been produced to help fight the infection.

You doctor might also order a blood culture to make sure the infection didn’t spread to your bloodstream. The blood culture, or a sputum test will help your doctor find out what caused the pneumonia in the first place. This will help them decide on the best way to treat your pneumonia, figure out how severe it is, and whether or not you should be hospitalized.

By Lori Peters, RRT, AMSR Respiratory Therapist

Question: What is Obstructive Sleep Apnea?

Answer: Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a common disorder that involves pauses, or periods of apnea, while someone sleeps. These pauses between breaths might last from 10 seconds to a few minutes. The severity of apnea is measured in terms of the number of times the apnea occurs over the course of an hour; this can be anywhere from 5 to 30 times or more. The apneic period ends when the patient takes his or her next breath, oftentimes with a loud snorting sound. Sleep apnea results in low nighttime blood oxygen levels and daytime sleepiness, due to the restless sleep from the night before.

OSA is usually caused by an airway that has collapsed or is blocked for some reason; oftentimes, this reason is obesity.

Untreated sleep apnea can increase the risk of high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke and diabetes. OSA might also increase the likelihood of irregular heartbeats and increase the possibility of work- or driving-related accidents. In women, it can also increase or worsen the risk of heart failure.

Diagnosing OSA involves a Sleep Study and treatment includes everything from lifestyle changes, such as weight loss, to CPAP therapy to surgery.

Many people are not even aware that they have OSA; however, a sleeping partner might notice irregularities in breathing. If you think that someone you know might have sleep apnea, please check with your doctor. Sleep apnea is a serious, chronic medical condition that should be diagnosed and treated by a qualified physician.

If your doctor diagnoses you, or someone you love, with sleep apnea, AMSR will be happy to answer any questions that you might about CPAP Therapy

Sometimes, you will be able to tell what it is and where it’s coming from by the way it feels. If you already have a heart condition, or a chronic lung disease, you should contact your doctor right away, or get to the nearest emergency medical facility as soon as you can to make sure you are not in danger.

Here are all of the different causes of chest pain, and some clues to help you identify them when they come up if you aren’t sure what they mean. Whether serious or minor, chest pain can occur not only in the heart, but in the lungs, ribs, esophagus, nerves, or any of the other different tissues around the chest area.

Heart Attack?

Even if you’ve never had one before, a heart attack should be distinguishable by its crushing ache sensation in the chest and along the left arm, severe weakness, nausea and sweating. If you feel these symptoms, seek medical attention immediately.

This can also be mistaken for angina, which is a blockage that occurs in the heart but doesn’t cause damage to the heart itself. It is painful and feels like pressure akin to a heart attack, but if you lie down and rest for a while, it will start to lessen. It can be brought on by exercise, excitement or other emotions.

Digestive Issues?

Heart burn can cause a pain in the chest, but you should be able to identify it pretty easily. It feels like a burning sensation that can be mild to severe, and it can be located anywhere between the stomach and the throat in the upper esophagus. Sometimes it is accompanied by nausea and vomiting if it is severe. If you heartburn becomes increasingly more severe, see your doctor. You could also be developing a peptic ulcer.

Gallbladder or pancreatic problems can cause pain that radiates up to your chest. Inflammation of your gallbladder or pancreas can become serious, and it may mean that your gallbladder will need to be removed if the problem isn’t treated. A pain like this can also be caused by gallstones. Gallstones should be treated to prevent a blockage of a bile duct, and can signal an infected gallbladder.

Pleurisy?

This is a chest pain that occurs with pneumonia. You will be able to tell if this is the case if you hold your breath, and the pain goes away temporarily. This is caused by inflammation of the membrane around the lungs, or the pleura.

Costochondritis?

This type of chest pain is non-life threatening and only causes discomfort. This is a tenderness in the cartilage that connects the breastbone to the ribcage. You will tell if this is costochondritis if you pres around the sternum (breastbone) and the tenderness feels worse.

If you have a chronic lung disease like COPD or asthma, or if you are over the age of 55, things like acute bronchitis and pneumonia can be especially dangerous for you. If you are not up to date on your pneumonia vaccination, you are at risk of developing this life threatening illness.

Sometimes, however, it can be a bit tricky trying to see what you have actually come down with. Is it just a chest cold or bronchitis? Walking Pneumonia or pneumonia? You should seek medical attention as soon as you can, but here are the symptoms and some information on these lung maladies.

Acute Bronchitis Symptoms

Acute bronchitis usually comes on after a cold. Even a head cold can turn into a chest cold, which then can become bronchitis if it drains down into the lungs. The airways become inflammed, and you may or may not have a fever with acute bronchitis. If you do have a fever, it would be no higher than 101 degrees Fahrenheit.

If you start to feel a little better a few days after coming down with your cold, but then take a turn for the worse with coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and general malaise, you may have developed acute bronchitis. If you cough up mucus from your lungs, it can be yellow, green or even have small spots of blood in it. See a doctor right away so you can take antibiotics or other medicines to get rid of it quicker.

Walking Pneumonia (Mycoplasma Pneumonia) Symptoms

You might not even be aware of having walking pneumonia if you have it, but you will have a persistent cough and general malaise that last for up to 3 weeks or a month. Many people who come down with this are younger than 40, and the symptoms can vary greatly from person to person.

You might feel as if you can go on with your day, but throughout the day you will experience headaches, a fever, fatigue, cold sweats and loss of appetite. If you have symptoms like this longer than one week, see your doctor for a run of antibiotics.

Pneumonia

Whether bacterial or viral, pneumonia can be deadly for those with lung diseases, or the elderly. The symptoms include a fever higher than 101 degrees Fahrenheit, shaking or chills, a painful cough that produces yellow or green sputum, body aches and generally just feeling awful. It can be mistaken for the flu, but even if you think you just have the flu virus, you should see a doctor as soon as you can. Pneumonia can be treated with antibiotics if it is bacterial, or with medications to lessen body aches and cough if it is viral.

Most portable oxygen concentrators only have pulse dose settings, and the ones that offer continuous dose usually have shorter battery lives and have to be larger to accommodate the extra features, as well as the battery. Naturally, if you have a portable model on a continuous dose setting, the battery won’t last as long as it would on a pulse dose setting.

Thankfully, we are now able to have higher doses of continuous flow on a portable oxygen concentrator, with longer battery lives and even better features in an even smaller machine! You can rest assured that all of these portable oxygen concentrators are approved by the Federal Aviation Administration for use on a passenger airplane.

Sequal Equinox

This model will be released in March of 2014, and it will become the new lightest portable concentrator with the highest continuous flow setting. It will weigh 14 lbs with the battery, and will give you as much continuous flow and pulse dose oxygen as the Eclipse. The battery life will even rival its predecessor, the Eclipse. This is great news for those who need 3 LPM of continuous flow, who have been wishing for a lighter concentrator!

Respirionics SimplyGo

Respirionics came out with a wonderful portable oxygen concentrator when they released the SimplyGo. It has one of the best battery durations in the portable category, and offers continuous flow, as well as pulse dose settings. The SimplyGo weighs 10 lbs with the battery, and is 11.5 inches wide, 10 inches tall and 6 inches deep.

A patient who needs 2 LPM of continuous flow will be able to use the SimplyGo, as well as those who need pulse dose up to 72 ml (setting 6 on this model). The continuous flow settings go in .05 LPM, from 0.5 to 2 LPM. The battery will last for 3 hours on the pulse dose setting of 2, but will be more or less depending on the setting you need.

Sequal Eclipse 3 or 5

So far, the Sequal Eclipse has been the lightest portable oxygen concentrator that offers up to 3 LPM (from 0.5 in 0.5 increments) of continuous flow, at 18.5 lbs with the battery. The pulse dose settings also feature higher doses, the highest being 192 ml. The weight can still be a bit much, especially for those who would like to go jogging or hiking while receiving their oxygen therapy.

The battery life on the Eclipse models is good, despite the high flow settings. On the continuous flow setting of 3 LPM, you can expect 1.3 hours of mobility, 2.1 hours on the highest pulse dose setting.

Here are several things you can do:

1. Break In New Batteries

New batteries are “dead batteries” when they arrive at your home. This just means you need to charge them before you use them. We recommend that you fully charge your battery then use it until it “dies,” then fully charge it again. Do this for 2 to 4 cycles to prime the battery to reach its maximum-rated capacity.

2. Keep Your Batteries Clean

Clean dirty battery contacts with a cotton swab and alcohol. This helps maintain a good connection between the battery and the portable device.

3. Exercise Your Battery

Don’t leave batteries dormant for long periods of time. We recommend using your battery at least once every 2 to 3 weeks. If a battery hasn’t been used for a long time, re-perform the new battery break-in procedure described above.

4. Battery Storage

If you don’t plan on using your battery for a month or more, store it in a clean, dry, cool place away from heat and metal objects. NiCad, NiMH and Li-Ion batteries will self-discharge during storage; remember to break them in before use.

If you can have a say in where you are this spring, you might want to avoid the following cities during spring allergy season. Go crash on a friends couch in a different place for a few weeks, if possible. If not, there are a few things you can do to avoid it in other ways. If you are thinking of traveling to any one of these places during the spring and you have pollen allergies, you might want to postpone your trip.

Here are the cities and why they are so bad on the spring allergy front. These are determined and monitored by the weather stations and the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America.

Daytona Beach, Florida. According to the weather channel, Daytona has extremely high levels of cedar, pine and elm during February and March. Daytona Beach is like many other cities in the south that gets hit hard with tree pollen before spring even comes on the calendar.

Sacramento, California. This capital of California gets hit in March mostly with Juniper, Ash and Willow pollen allergies, as well as different grasses.

Knoxville, Tennessee. This city got a rating of 100 from the AAFA for pollen scores. There are many different kinds of grasses and trees blooming in this area from February all the way through May.

Denver, Colorado. Come March, this area is hit hard by the evergreen pollen for the most part, with grasses and flowers coming through late May. They get it later because this city is usually too cold and covered in snow to deal with pollen before about mid to late March.

McAllen, Texas. Located near the Mexican border, this city warms up fast and becomes humid earlier, so they are often suffering with high levels of pollen before other places. Mid February is especially bad for trees like Cedar, Elm and Maple. The grasses and flowers come in March.

Jackson, Mississippi. This city has croplands, prairies and other flora all around it, so there are plenty of things here to cause allergies in the spring time. February marks the start of allergy season here with trees.

Witchita, Kansas. There’s nothing to stop the winds from sweeping across the plains to spread the grass and tree pollens into this city. It all starts in Late February and doesn’t start to die down until late

The group of 10 completed a 5-mile hike near Idaho Springs, Colorado. Supplemental oxygen in tow, they left the trailhead at Summit Lake (elevation 12,840 feet) at 9 a.m. and summited scenic Mount Evans (elevation 14,264 feet) at 1:30 p.m.

AMSR customer service manager John More said it was a challenge for him to keep up with customers Lyn Cole and Mike McBride, whose normal oxygen use rates are 3 to 4 liters per minute. On the high-altitude hike, they needed about 15 liters per minute, but as long as their supplemental oxygen needs were being met, they were able to hike safely and have fun.

Of course, oxygen users should seek physician clearance before attempting such a hike, as Lyn and Mike did.

“It just goes to show what oxygen users can do if they plan carefully and have access to the extra oxygen they might need,” said John.

American Medical’s rental program provides customers with the mobility to travel anywhere, anytime. Our extensive fleet of portable oxygen concentrators includes both pulse and continuous flow machines.

Choose from any of our products, Respironics Evergo, Inogen One G2, SeQual Eclipse III, DeVilbiss IGO.

Renting a concentrator is as easy as making a phone call. Call one of our friendly customer care agents and describe your travel plans and concentrator requirements. We will help you select the unit and batteries that will fulfill all of your needs.

We will ship your concentrator to arrive 24 hours before your travel begins. Unpack your unit and call us with any questions. Our customer care agents are happy to discuss any set-up questions.

Enjoy your travels; we have a full time customer service department to support you.

When you return, simply repack your unit using the prepaid return shipping label and drop it off at any UPS drop off location.

We are here to help. Our goal is to make your life a little easier by providing you with remarkable customer service. Please call anytime, we would love to hear from you.

Our weekly packages start at just $245. Call one of our customer care agents for more information.