Cost vs. Benefit
Apr. 19th, 2022 03:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisnewdayA few days after I started riding outdoors again, I began noticing an increase in the discomfort I normally feel in my chest, I think from the COPD, when I lie down at night and when I get up in the morning.
Then, a couple of mornings ago, I also had a slightly sore throat and a lot more coughing, mostly unproductive, when I got up. In fact, the coughing continued through the morning and into the day. In the back of my mind, I was hoping this wasn't the next stage of my COPD beginning to emerge.
I also felt unusually fatigued and may have taken the day off from riding and working out. Which may have coincided with the day when it rained nearly all day, meaning that would've skipped the ride anyway.
In any case, I felt a bit better the next day and decided, as a precaution, to wear the sports training mask I'd gotten last year. It's a 5-layer mask and has one-way vents so that the C02 is pushed out when you exhale.
I got it specifically for my outdoor bike rides due to concerns about seasonal allergens and all the dust and pollution I'm undoubtedly breathing in--deeply--as I ride.
However, pulling air through the 5-layer filter is a challenge when riding hard and, depending on ambient temp, can also cause protective eyewear to fog. As a result, I haven't used it much but decided to try it again the day after my respiratory problems seemed to have peaked.
The morning was cold, and so I had the expected problems with my glasses fogging. One top of which, my riding glasses are a fixed tint for sun-blocking and are not vision-correcting so I spent the whole ride contemplating whether I wanted it to end with an oxygen tube stuck down my throat, due to an unprotected respiratory system, or be scraped off the road because I'd ridden into the path of a truck I hadn't seen.
The next day, yesterday, I actually felt quite a bit better and I decided "eff the mask" since it might be my last ride for a few days due to the snow and rain in the weather forecast.
But then, last night, I had a recurrence of the nighttime breathing problems, so much so that I was verging on a panic attack and didn't get to sleep until after 3 AM.
It was so bad, in fact, that I started researching "oxygen masks for bicycling" before I finally got to sleep. And yes, it turns out that there IS such a thing, albeit with a hefty price tag for the gear, up front, and the expectation of maintenance and resupply costs on the back end.
So now I'm wondering if there's any chance that my totally inept, big-name Part D provider--which still couldn't grasp the difference between my nebulizer and the compressor which drives it, even after a detailed explanation--could possibly understand what I'm asking for and why the health benefits might outweigh the costs I'd be asking them to defray.
Maybe, as in the case of the nebulizer which I finally paid for myself out of shear frustration, I'll just do the same with this.
Because, you know, cost vs. benefit analysis...
LPK
Dreamwidth
4.19.2022
Then, a couple of mornings ago, I also had a slightly sore throat and a lot more coughing, mostly unproductive, when I got up. In fact, the coughing continued through the morning and into the day. In the back of my mind, I was hoping this wasn't the next stage of my COPD beginning to emerge.
I also felt unusually fatigued and may have taken the day off from riding and working out. Which may have coincided with the day when it rained nearly all day, meaning that would've skipped the ride anyway.
In any case, I felt a bit better the next day and decided, as a precaution, to wear the sports training mask I'd gotten last year. It's a 5-layer mask and has one-way vents so that the C02 is pushed out when you exhale.
I got it specifically for my outdoor bike rides due to concerns about seasonal allergens and all the dust and pollution I'm undoubtedly breathing in--deeply--as I ride.
However, pulling air through the 5-layer filter is a challenge when riding hard and, depending on ambient temp, can also cause protective eyewear to fog. As a result, I haven't used it much but decided to try it again the day after my respiratory problems seemed to have peaked.
The morning was cold, and so I had the expected problems with my glasses fogging. One top of which, my riding glasses are a fixed tint for sun-blocking and are not vision-correcting so I spent the whole ride contemplating whether I wanted it to end with an oxygen tube stuck down my throat, due to an unprotected respiratory system, or be scraped off the road because I'd ridden into the path of a truck I hadn't seen.
The next day, yesterday, I actually felt quite a bit better and I decided "eff the mask" since it might be my last ride for a few days due to the snow and rain in the weather forecast.
But then, last night, I had a recurrence of the nighttime breathing problems, so much so that I was verging on a panic attack and didn't get to sleep until after 3 AM.
It was so bad, in fact, that I started researching "oxygen masks for bicycling" before I finally got to sleep. And yes, it turns out that there IS such a thing, albeit with a hefty price tag for the gear, up front, and the expectation of maintenance and resupply costs on the back end.
So now I'm wondering if there's any chance that my totally inept, big-name Part D provider--which still couldn't grasp the difference between my nebulizer and the compressor which drives it, even after a detailed explanation--could possibly understand what I'm asking for and why the health benefits might outweigh the costs I'd be asking them to defray.
Maybe, as in the case of the nebulizer which I finally paid for myself out of shear frustration, I'll just do the same with this.
Because, you know, cost vs. benefit analysis...
LPK
Dreamwidth
4.19.2022
no subject
Date: 2022-04-24 07:34 pm (UTC)How is the weather in NY? More snow and cold for y'all is what I'd seen on weather channel. Friends in MN are also having snow. We're in Spring w. warm and cold alternating. Has hit low 80's a few afternoons and then a day or so later is barely 60.
Hope the COPD is not progressing, but yes - certain symptoms do make us wonder. :(
I have managed a few 15 min walks on our street/cul-de-sac in the early evenings.
Hope overall things are going good for you.
no subject
Date: 2022-04-26 08:56 pm (UTC)As for the weather, let me put it this way--yesterday it was sunny and 80 degrees, today it's rainy with a high of 50, and tomorrow we have snow in the forecast!
I'm still not sure about the COPD, whether it's just that I'm challenging my respiratory system a lot more in combination with the exposure to outdoor pollution or what.
I mean, COPD is progressive so that's inevitable but, you know, I want to be able to say when and how bad, lol. But I guess we don't get to do that?
Anyway, rode twice a day for the past three days and at least once a day for 7 out of the 8 days before that and haven't gotten any worse, so that's good. I'll take it.
Glad you're getting to walk and wishing you and Mike and the kiddo well...