[Paul F Nichter]

@warlock

Bill Kelly, thanks very much for those links!

My most recent problem regarding O2 came over these past couple weeks as the COVID shutdowns went into effect. A scheduled delivery from my provider did not happen, When I called the next day, the fellow on the phone said that the Gov had ordered lock down of all activity other than emergency services. This was not true. The limitation was to essential services.

It took me another three calls over two days to reach a supervisor to voice my complaint. She apologized and explained that they reasoned that since I was ordered to stay shut in and I had my home concentrator, that I would not need tanks. I explained that I was on a lung transplant waiting list requiring regular hospital  visits and that I would not be able to make those visits, not make it to the hospital if I got the call for transplant without O2, and that my situation would soon become an emergency if they would not deliver the O2. She again apologized, understood and arranged for delivery of extra tanks beyond what I had requested.

On my next hospital visit, I found that they were far less generous with dispensing O2 there. I had been taught on previous visits that they wanted me to use their tanks while in the hospital and these were always available right inside the entry.  That was no longer the case, and I had to follow directions to no less than four different locations before finding someone who could provide me O2 to use while in the building. Frustration was building by then!

That night, on the local TV news there was a piece about how the COVID crisis had depleted hospital supplies of both O2 and of blood, There are so many ripple effects of this in the health care industry that nobody ever anticipated. We all learn.

I have severely curtailed my own use of the O2 in tanks by staying indoors, walking and exercising on my concentrator supply, and using a pendant oximizer to make the tan last longer when I have to go out

[Paul F Nichter]

My Understanding of how the IPF progression is measured is by the breathing tests ( which I love to hate) and the six minute walk, comparing those results to previous.