Diff'rent Strokes is your source for information about Todd Thelin and his stroke recovery. Please feel free to add comments about posts, add new information in the comments, e-mail new information for me to post, or ask questions that we can answer. Keep in mind that posts are moderated, so they will need to be approved before they show-up. This helps fight spam.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Oxygenation

Hi everyone, a couple of people have been concerned about an earlier post where I mentioned that Todd was on oxygen. Don't worry, there is nothing to fear. They discovered while he was in the hospital that he has sleep apnea (they could have just asked me; having slept with the man for the past 10 years I knew a long time ago that he was apneic.) They haven't done an official sleep study, but they noticed from all the times bugging him in the middle of the night for his vitals, that his oxygen levels were dropping below 90% at night, so for now they have him using a machine that takes room air and filters it until it's nearly pure oxygen. He has to wear a nasal cannula any time he sleeps and have this machine going.

After he sees our family doctor (later on this week) we will hopefully schedule a sleep study, after which he will most likely be fitted with a cpap (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine, which forces his airways to stay open, thus eliminating the breath-holding spells that are sleep apnea. The cpap looks like this:
Dead sexy, right? Hey, whatever helps him get a restful nights sleep (and the not snoring isn't a bad side effect either.)

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I use one too, it's the coolest!! Best sleep I've had in years. I feel like Luke in the Bacta Tank on Hoth.....Sooch