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My mom's small cell lung cancer has spread to her brain, liver and bones. She is having a hard time breathing but everytime they check her oxygen intake it is always 97% and above. They won't put her on oxygen unless her level falls to the 80's. They put her back on prednisone to see if that helps. Anyone have any ideas or suggestions? She uses Advair, Albuterol and Spiriva (inhalers) daily. Thanks
Cancer Spiriva Falls Morphine Albuterol Advair diskus Pneumonia Singulair Prednisone Bactrim Lung cancer
Oral morphine will help relieve the distress from working hard to breathe, and also the cough which is often associated. Don't need all that much, and a long acting version is available.
The prednisone might help, but will take a day or so to work.
hey, Carol,
My dad was in a similar situation - he went to the pulmonary doctor, who put him on a "burst" of prednisone - very high dosage for 3 days, high dosage for 3 days, medium high for 3 days, declining until back to normal dosage. It really helped him - maybe you could broach the question.
Pat
My father's oxygen levels were always right up where they should be, but he was very anxious. They gave him oxygen just as a comfort because bouts of movement winded him easily. I'm sure if you ask - they will provide a mask or a nose piece. It certainly gave my Dad a sense of security even if his levels made it seem unnecessary.
Good luck to you. Hold her hand, hug her and tell her you love her every day.
Hi Carol,
I am having a similar problem. After my last round of Chemo, I started having tough time breathing. My blood Oxygen was 98/86. If I attempted “normal” activity, or if I bent down to pick something up, I would get out of breath and have to sit until the breathing became easier, In addition, if I stood up, and started to walk, I would get very dizzy, and again have sit for a few minutes.
What my problem is: My blood Counts (all) but specifically Red count & Platelets had drooped drastically. In the last 3 weeks I had to get 3 transfusions, each time consisting of two bags of platelets, and two bags of whole blood. Shortly after a transfusion, I would be able to breath “normal” again. If your Mon has not had her counts checked lately, It may be worth while to get a new workup. Ya never know!
Best regards and our prayers to Mon and you
Dennis
Carol40- RE: your mom's breathing. See if the Doc will reorder Blood gases and have the technician take the blood immediately after she exercises. MY brother's oxygen levels were normal when sitting but dropped dramatically when he did the least bit of activity.
My mom has COPD in addition to NSCLC and is on Advair, Spireva, and Singulair. She's had one round of steroids and it did nothing to relieve her distress. Then we got the ca diagnosis and the COPD took a back seat. I notice that hydration makes a difference in her breathing. When she gets dehydrated it is more work for her to breathe.
Yvette
When I was on chemo I had a hard time breathing, same problem my oxgen level was around 95 to 97 when they test me. If I attempted “normal” activity I would get out of breath and have to sit until the breathing became easier, In addition, if I started to walk after about 5 yards I was like a man that just run a 100 yds dash. All type of tests. I told the Dr's it was the chemo but no one believe me. Well now after being of the chemo since Nov 07 I can breath also normal. Good luck.
my mom had copd and sclc Her pulse ox was always good 98 99 She had many inhalers and was on 2 liters of oxygen Prednisone was the only thing that helped her During extreme difficult periods her dosage was kept at 60 mg for two weeks then tapered from there. She ended up always being at 30 mg - anything lower would not help Drs were kind of afraid to keep her on long term therapy but the benefits far outweighed the risks a very important thing though being on steroids long term can cause infections in the lung If this ends up being a choice for you make sure to be placed on an antibiotic My mom took Bactrim and quite honestly she had pneumonia 3 times before the bactrim and never once got it again after the bactrim I hope this helps in some small way
Years ago my mother had a similar issue and they gave her inhalers and such but nothing seemed to help.. Has your mom had a lung xray done recently. We ended up having to take my mother in and she had fluid built up around her lung that they had to drain off. This cleared up her breathing problem quite well. It can come back and her's did and they had to drain it a few times. They said the fluid was putting pressure on her diaphram making it hard to take good breaths. But she always had good pulse ox levels.
My dad is experiencing similar problems. His breathing problems came on so suddenly--one night, he couldn't breathe as well lying down. Now he is on 2 lpm of oxygen 24/7 and uses BIPAP machine ot help purge CO2 levels from his blood when he naps and sleeps for hte night. He is on Ipatropium bromide nebulizer treatments as well as Advair diskus. the slightest bit of exertion, sends him into a breathing fit--. He hardly moves around at all. And this all practically started overnight. I can't figure out how much of this is from the tumor burden and how much of this is from general crappy lungs.
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