Mom & Me Two Archive

    I scanned backward a ways to see if I'd mentioned this before, couldn't find mention of it, so I'll outline the entire problem and final solution (which I've been suspecting for a couple of days and confirmed, today).
    I've been having lots of trouble with Oxygen Conservation Devices and my mother for some months now. It began around the time that we transferred from our Phoenix supplier to a Prescott supplier. This was also soon after my mother stopped smoking and wasn't using oxygen that much and, as well, was moving around a bit more.
    This was the problem: It didn't matter what type of regulator we tried (several) or what type of cannulae (also tried several) or how often I changed the cannulae, my mother's natural breathing wasn't pulling adequate oxygen from a tank. Since I know that her breathing capacity has improved by leaps and bounds since she quit smoking this glitch has been very frustrating. The company insisted that the problem was her mouth breathing but she's always mouth breathed and it's not been a problem before although I vowed to work on getting her to stop this. If you've ever taken care of a mouth breather on oxygen you know two things: With the right regulator it doesn't matter and it's impossible to get a mouth breather who is also senile to stop. In order to make sure she was getting one to two liters I'd have to dial the regulator up to 5 or 6 (typically regulators don't go any higher than this). Still I had to keep my ear trained on the puffing of the regulator, which becomes quickly tiresome, in order to either remind her to breathe through her nose or take another stab at figuring what might be the problem.
    A couple of nights ago it occurred to me that the problem might lie somewhere besides the equipment. I became aware of how often she was wiping her nose whether or not she was using oxygen. I began concentrated observation and discovered that her nose wiping wasn't being caused by a runny nose. The tissues she was using (she can go through a large box a day) were mostly not wet a stuck-together dry. Since I'd installed the humidifier a couple of weeks ago she has no longer been waking up with a stuffy, slightly bloody nose. She has been amazingly free of allergic reactions lately (bless mountain air). I began to wonder if maybe she had replaced smoking with the habit of obsessively wiping her nose. This wouldn't ordinarily cause a problem. But, I thought, it might cause a huge problem when using oxygen because at least once a minute, sometimes more often, she was up there fiddling with the cannula, accidentally displacing it and either holding her breath or breathing through her mouth. I briefly tried KY jelly but this only aggravated the problem because, with that stuff in her nose, her nasal passages not only felt wet, they were wet.
    This morning while I had her on oxygen (I put her on oxygen right after bathing her, usually through breakfast, just to give her a lift) I explained it all to her including my guess that her nose wiping was habitual and not necessary, that it was interfering with her intake of oxygen and that I was getting really tired of having to keep an even closer eye on her than normal when she was on oxygen just to make sure she was getting some.
    "Mom, when you're on oxygen, I'm banning all Kleenex and other paper products that can be used as nose wipers from your vicinity. Beginning now."
    I invaded her house coat pockets and divested them of Kleenex. I took away her napkin, got rid of my napkin and hid the rest. I gathered all the Kleenex boxes littered throughout the house and hid them. I made sure all used Kleenexes (which she drops where ever she is) were picked up and thrown away. I told her that the oxygen, itself, should dry up any "running" that was actually occurring (although none was, but the principle is true). Then I dialed her back to 2/lpm and waited. Sure enough, she immediately and autonomically stopped mouth breathing and the regulator puffed away just as it had several months ago. I could have danced all day. In fact, I believe I'm still dancing.
    The oxygen guy was due to show up today. I had been assigned a "special" one with lots of experience because, well, I'm sure it's because I was considered a troublesome client with my continual complaining about regulators. Today he was due perform the 90 day check on the concentrator. I followed him into my mother's room and told him I was no longer going to be a pain in the ass about regulators and explained exactly what the problem was and how I solved it.
    He was astounded. He'd never "heard such a thing". As I explained what I believed had been happening he confirmed it with his engineering perspective on how OCDs work. He went on to tell me that he was very pleased to know this because he thought the information might help him solve problems with current and future clients who were also touchy about regulators.
    I expect it will take awhile to get Mom to stop looking for Kleenex. When she's not on oxygen, if she begins to display agitation from not being able to wipe her nose she can have all the Kleenex she wants. She just can't have any when she's on oxygen.
    Another obscure caregiver problem solved by SuperCaregiver Gail.