I was permanently put on oxygen today. It's hard to describe, though you can probably imagine, the adaptations that are made when being at home on a 25-foot tether that's on the floor being dragged around by your face and really shouldn't be stepped on much, dragging along behind you, trying not to tie a knot as you travel from place to place.

It was really impressive how thoroughly the decision is carried out and how quickly. The doctors said very early this morning that from this time hence, it shall be thus, and so it was. I was supplied a tank on wheels to get me out to the car and home. A couple of hours later, a friendly man arrived with a home oxygen concentrator, small travel tank in shoulder bag with a half-dozen tanks, a full walkthrough of how everything works, and more hoses than an aquarium shop.

I do remove the cannula for some maneuvers that are too complicated or inconvenient to quickly perform, but other than that,
I've not been off my new breathing mixture for more than a more than five (brief) times. My new breathing mixture includes 3 liters of oxygen per minute, which is 1 liter above the average prescription of 2, so at least I remain above average. (This is still not extremely high, though, my regulator goes up to 6 and there are people who need even more than that.)

For reasons too complicated to get into, I now know that for the week before being put on oxygen, I would have been committing a crime had I driven a car, as my average blood oxygen was running about 75%. (My usual reading before that, and again now, is 95 or 96.)

It all makes me want a cigarette for the first time since 2004, which is how I got here in the first place.

#cancer