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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Suggest Prognosis Of Health Conditions With Disfunctionality Of Lungs

I am a little confused. My mother had a biopsy this morning in England and after it was over and she was in recovery her left lung collapsed and blood went into both her lungs (not a huge amount). They put her on oxygen, but because she has asthma, her blood became acidic because of high carbon dioxide levels. The have her on a oxygen mask which is on firmly and have inserted a drainage tube. When I asked about her oxygen saturation levels they said she was at 99%, but wanted her to be closer to 82%. Am I missing something? I thought normal oxygen saturation levels should be between 95-100%. I know this as I have just gone through 6 weeks of my colleagues Mum in ICU who died from Lung Cancer and who worked as a nurse. So I speak a lot of time talking over treatment with the doctors as I was the one who remained calm. My Mother is 82, very active, does have a slow heart because they lasered off an extra valve and is not overweight. I am trying to control things from here as I have an hysterical sister!!! I just spoke with them again and they said she is definitely more alert, than she was 4 hours ago.
Mon, 21 Sep 2015
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Pulmonologist 's  Response
The oxygen needs to be on the lower side in order to control her carbon dioxide levels and also control her acidosis. If she is more alert now then it indicates that her carbon dioxide levels are lower and probably she is improving.
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Suggest Prognosis Of Health Conditions With Disfunctionality Of Lungs

The oxygen needs to be on the lower side in order to control her carbon dioxide levels and also control her acidosis. If she is more alert now then it indicates that her carbon dioxide levels are lower and probably she is improving.