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I have stage 4 copd, emphysema, on 02 24/7. Hospitalized jan 11-14, then hospitalized again Jan 24-26. Put on 2 week course of Prednisone plus antibiotics. Still on those meds. Also have chronic anxiety, and severe panic attacks.
POWER OUTAGE:
This Tues 3:30 the horrid beeping that the 02 concentrator lost power. Whole neighborhood lost power. My first thought, stay calm. I immediately did my rescue inhaler. Reached for flashlight I keep within reach of my bed. I sat up slowly and got to my back up 02 tank at foot of my bed and got it going. Took my Xanax for anxiety as it kicks in quicker. Did my breathing techniques. After 5 minutes power came back on! Thank god I thought. 4:30 am. That horrid sound AGAIN. All power off. Immediately did 1puff rescue inhaler. Turned emergency tank back on. Took 7.5 oxy as prescribed to help breathing and pain. I had 02 tank set at 2cf. Did breathing exercises and did best to stay calm. I knew if I stayed very still and calm I would not use as much 02. Set my 02 at 6 and off continuous flow and put on my pulse oximeter. After 20 min 02 down to 89 so put back to cf2 til 02 got up to 95. Kept this up til 7am when power came back on. Immediately put my concentrator back on but after maybe 1 minute all power off again. So kept doing same routine. Took anxiety med again, and my 40 mg of prednisone. Spare tank lasted about 1-3 hrs.
Power came back on at 5PM. For 5 minutes and went back out. Never got out of bed. I keep a male urinal next to my bed and used that frequently. I also keep snacks, back up rescue inhaler, nasal moisture spray, water's, back up meds glasses n more in a storage bin on my bed. Cause just sitting up can cause breathing issue and then anxiety, a bad loop. Son was there to help starting that morning. Literally hundreds of thousands of people in our Central Texas area were without power. Couldn't get thru to 911. Had son charge phone in car. I had gone thru 4 tanks so far, only 2 left, and phone connection to news said it could be days. We finally got 911 and fire dept out. They could not transport cause I was not critical enough. Power came back on about 7:30. Stayed on for 30 min. Off again. Well an hour later in came back on and has been on since. The last night, though power on at 3am there was thunder n lightning. Anxiety sky high. At 4 am I hear cracking and a crash outside my bed window. Tree branch down. At about 5 I hear more cracking times 3 and then a large crash and bang against my other bed window. We've had power since but its Friday now and there are still literally still hundreds of thousands still without power. My heart and prayers go out to all those people but being reliant on 02 to stay alive adds a whole new terror. So please check yourself, do you have emergency supplies within reach, back up meds in case you cant walk out to get them yourself, do u have snacks, water. I am home alone most the time n was lucky to have my son there. Gonna be buying one of those emergency phone chargers for sure and some type of backup supply if I can afford.