I have a very low oxygen saturation level. Lows around 70% to high of 88%. What are some possible causes?
In the last four months, I’ve had a Ct scan, Hide-a-Scan, two heart studies, three halter monitors, sleep study,Sonogram, full body bone scan, endoscopy and complete blood work up. My cholesterol was slightly above normal. The sleep study showed I have sleep apnea. ( I now wear a C-Pap @ 17 psi w/ 5 lpm o2). The endoscopy showed some signs of mild damage due to aspirin and tylenol taken for the pain. The CT scan showed mild degeneration of L1 & L2 but otherwise nothing significant. (History of prostate cancer. Dr thought maybe the cancer had metastasized into the spine but bone scan showed no evidence of cancer) Moderate to severe pain in RUQ was diagnosed as costal condritis. Symptoms of this are improving.
Bone chilling fatigue haunts me. I’m fairly certain that this is a direct result of the low o2 sats.
Any ideas? So far, the doctors have not found out the problem. Thanks!
Tagged with: aspirin • blood work • bone scan • c pap • endoscopy • four months • heart studies • history of prostate cancer • l1 • l2 • lpm • mild damage • problem thanks • prostate cancer • psi • severe pain • sleep study • sonogram • spine • tylenol
Filed under: Sleep Apnea Symptoms
Yes, those are very low saturations. In general, the causes of low saturation are problems with the mechanics of breathing (such as sleep apnea), unequal blood flow in the lungs, problems with oxygen diffusing from the lungs into the blood, problems with the heart (such as a shunt), hemoglobin problems, and problems with the saturation monitor itself (certain things can give false readings). I don’t know how many of these things the doctors have addressed so far, but they should keep looking until they find the cause. If your current doctor has given up, find another one. Those numbers are way too low. Now, if you are just referring to your sleep study numbers, that is a different story; in that case, you should first focus on the sleep apnea (sleep apnea alone can make you bone tired). But if they are that low in the daytime, the doctors need to keep looking for a cause, and they need to consider having you on oxygen, too.
I hope they figure it out soon, and I hope you feel better soon.
i have same problem. mine was from the apnea and heart failure. they might want sheck if you are on the right settings on the cpap. they had to adjust mine a few times before my o2 sats came up
My doctors checked my lungs via chest xray, PFT pulmanory funtion test
Gonna funny feeling they are looking in wrong place
FWIW I know that when you oxy stat is 88 or lower medicade
pays for oxygen, My Ins co started paying at 90
My guess is you need a pulmanologist to check your lungs, thats darn low w/o oxygen
Sleep apnea could account for low Sa02s but are these waking levels? And is this a level obtained via pulse oximetry, ABGs or both? Do you happen to know what the Pa02 was? Everything else you mention sounds fine with the exception of the ASA/Tylenol mild damage. Was this to the liver? I’d be most interested in the results of the labs you’ve had.
You have hypoxemia. Some of the causes are high altitudes, COPD, pulmonary fibrosis, pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, atelecstasis. consolidation, edema, airway obstruction, pulmonary edema and congenital heart disease. I think you can rule some of these right off the bat.
Somehow I think there’s something more contributing to your low sats. What other diagnostics do your doctors have in mind?