NYT Opinion on "Silent Hypoxia"

[sengsational]

I didn't get snagged by a paywall when I went to this NYT article, which is covers observations of patients in Bellevue Hospital that showed no respiratory distress, but had very low oxygen saturation (the patients came in for other reasons, but were found to have "Covid pneumonia"):

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/opinion/coronavirus-testing-pneumonia.html

The coronavirus attacks lung cells that make surfactant. This substance helps the air sacs in the lungs stay open between breaths and is critical to normal lung function. As the inflammation from Covid pneumonia starts, it causes the air sacs to collapse, and oxygen levels fall. Yet the lungs initially remain “compliant,” not yet stiff or heavy with fluid. This means patients can still expel carbon dioxide — and without a buildup of carbon dioxide, patients do not feel short of breath. Patients compensate for the low oxygen in their blood by breathing faster and deeper — and this happens without their realizing it. This silent hypoxia, and the patient’s physiological response to it, causes even more inflammation and more air sacs to collapse, and the pneumonia worsens until oxygen levels plummet. In effect, patients are injuring their own lungs by breathing harder and harder.

The author suggests that people monitor their oxygen saturation and go to the hospital early if the saturation goes down.

But there's a BIG problem with this recommendation. There's nothing the hospital can offer except for laying you in different positions (side / back / front). I didn't read too many comments, but one I did read was from another doctor that said just that: there's nothing they have to offer.

But I think that everyone here that has a pulse oximeter should probably try it every few days, just to know what you baseline is for you and for your specific device. If it starts to go down, that might actually be the first symptom you otherwise wouldn't notice.

 

[audreyh1]

Already a thread started in this,so this should be merged into https://www.early-retirement.org/fo...s-attack-on-the-lungs-103417.html#post2416348
There are a lot of treatments other than the one you mentioned, but that in itself is quite effective

There are other things we can do as well to avoid immediately resorting to intubation and a ventilator. Patient positioning maneuvers (having patients lie on their stomach and sides) open up the lower and posterior lungs most affected in Covid pneumonia. Oxygenation and positioning helped patients breathe easier and seemed to prevent progression of the disease in many cases. In a preliminary study by Dr. Caputo, this strategy helped keep three out of four patients with advanced Covid pneumonia from needing a ventilator in the first 24 hours.

And there are treatments for patients that are dealing with severe immunity system response/cytokine storm. There are various treatment protocols being developed for various COVID-19 issues.

 

[ivinsfan]

Some of these things are pretty basic. So don't lay in bed for 24 hours a day. Move around a little. Sit upright. Do deep breathing once an hour. Do deep coughs once in awhile, make sure to drink lots of fluids. Pretty much what they instruct you to do when you are recovering from a major surgery.

 

[FIYes]

NYT Opinion on "Silent Hypoxia"

My phone measures “stress”. It gives a reading that is heart rate, oxygen saturation, and an estimate of stress level. I have considered this a novelty feature and other than playing with it to see how it works, I haven’t used it. This makes me wonder if I should pay more attention to it. I have a Samsung phone that has a sensor on the back that measures this. It is not a feature that influenced my decision to buy the phone. In fact, it was several months before I noticed that this feature existed.

This just has me thinking that should one of us begin to feel ill, I need to remember that we have the capability to measure oxygen saturation. Anyone else considering using their phone for this?

 

[MRG]

My phone measures “stress”. It gives a reading that is heart rate, oxygen saturation, and an estimate of stress level. I have considered this a novelty feature and other than playing with it to see how it works, I haven’t used it. This makes me wonder if I should pay more attention to it. I have a Samsung phone that has a sensor on the back that measures this. It is not a feature that influenced my decision to buy the phone. In fact, it was several months before I noticed that this feature existed.

This just has me thinking that should one of us begin to feel ill, I need to remember that we have the capability to measure oxygen saturation. Anyone else considering using their phone for this?

My Samsung does the same thing, i don't consider it very accurate. I used my pulse oxomimeter on one finger my phone on the other at the same time. Pulse oxomimeter says 92, phone says 98. Which one is right?

 

[Rianne]

Some of these things are pretty basic. So don't lay in bed for 24 hours a day. Move around a little. Sit upright. Do deep breathing once an hour. Do deep coughs once in awhile, make sure to drink lots of fluids. Pretty much what they instruct you to do when you are recovering from a major surgery.

This is what Chris Cuomo did while recovering at home. A Dr. friend of his recommended this. CC description of his experience is alarming but he methodically practiced all the above ^

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

My Samsung does the same thing, i don't consider it very accurate. I used my pulse oxomimeter on one finger my phone on the other at the same time. Pulse oxomimeter says 92, phone says 98. Which one is right?

I only noticed this feature on my Samsung S7 Edge a couple of weeks ago thanks to a thread here on ER, and my phone's results for pulse and SpO2 have almost always been within one point of the pulse oximeter I have.