ICD checked & other info

Bob went to his regular pulmonary rehab class today and did 40 minutes on the machine. They hook him up to a tank of oxygen when he gets on the machine. He has three more classes to go.

After lunch we went to the cardiologist's office for the ICD check. The tech confirmed that Bob had had an episode of atrial fibrillation the day we went to Costco. After the ICD check we went to the car (which we had parked near Dr. Beck's office because there was no space in front of the bldg. where the ICD check was done) and I read a magazine while Bob took a nap. He was pretty tired from the 40 min. on the machine in addition to the warm up and cool down exercises.

Later we got out of the car and walked the short distance to Dr. Beck's office. Dr. Beck had a written message about Bob's oxygen need from one of the staff at the rehab class. After some questioning by Dr. Beck, it turns out that Bob (and I) had misinterpreted some information given out about inhaler use. Further questioning of Bob by Dr. B revealed that, after the class about maintenance and rescue use of inhalers, Bob quit using his inhaler as a maintenance device and only used it as a rescue device.

So Dr. Beck gave Bob a different inhaler (Symbicort) to use as a maintenance device and he will continue to use the Combivent inhaler as a rescue device. Bob is to go back in a month to discuss the results of using the Symbicort which is to be used 1 puff twice a day (every 12 hours). Dr. Beck also wants Bob to be on oxygen whenever he exercises at/from home. Since one of the guys in Bob's class, Pete, is on oxygen full time and comes to class with a small tank in a back pack Dr. Beck wants Bob to talk to Pete about the supplier of his oxygen to see if Bob would like to use the same supplier. So Bob will talk to Pete and then get back to Dr. Beck so that Dr. Beck can call A supplier and make arrangements for Bob to have oxygen here at home. He can use the oxygen when he takes out the garbage cans and brings them back in or goes for a walk or uses the machines at the senior center for exercise.

Ever since the episode at Costco, Bob has been wearing a waist pack in which he carries the Combivent inhaler and a few other items.

About 6:30 tonight Dr. Galli called to tell us the results of the ICD check. He confirmed the episode of atrial fibrillation and indicated that it was at a lower level than other episodes. He said that nothing can be done about it and it will happen again. This was a minor/shorter episode compared with some of his previous incidents where he went to the emergency room.

Bob has an oximeter that he uses frequently to check his oxygen level. Recently, after he had made sure all the doors were locked before we went to bed, he took a reading with the meter. His oxygen level was 88. It needs to be 90 or above. So it doesn't take much moving around for him to get too low on oxygen.