After running 3 half marathons in the last two years I was shocked when I just happen to put a pulse ox on my finger that my wife had brought home to have around during the winter to test our kids when needed. I have a special needs kiddo and sometimes it can be hard to tell when she isn’t well. Anyways, living at 5000 feet, a slightly lower spo2 is expected, but mine was 93%. Turns out walking up stairs and it can drop between 82 and 89. When I run I can fluctuate between 84 and 89, I try to keep it above 85. Of course I’ve been tested for sleep apnea, which of course they say I have. Cpap, didn’t improve the amount of time below 90% at night which is usually 2-4 hours, so I use 2L to sleep at night. I had to request this…. It wasn’t just offered. I’ve had Xray, CT, nuclear medicine vq scan, PFT, CPET, and echo. As some other have mentioned, I’m also uncovered a PFO through all this testing. However, I was able to get it closed. It had zero affect on my 02. So I would tell those considering it to proceed cautiously, I’m 5 months post procedure and still dealing with a residual arrhythmia from the procedure. For the most part, all of my testing has come back clean. The only think that was abnormal was my PFT. My fvc ratio was mildly reduced but my FVC was above average so it appears to be more of a ‘big lungs, with normal pipes’ common in people with my physique. (Barrel chested, athletic build). My DLCo was above average. My CPET was very encouraging. Above average vo2 max, 02 pulse, etc. my 02 was interesting. It was 95 at rest and 90 at peak exercise, which they considered fairly normal at this elevation. Side note on this. 1) this test was done on a spin bike, my 02 does ok on a spin bike, running and doing stairs is much worse. 2) they used a forehead sensor to measure 02. I bought my own Masimo clinical grade forehead sensor, it runs 5% higher than my 5 other finger pulse ox’s, including the finger clip that comes as an option on my Masimo pulse ox machine. Seems as though my forehead signicanrly over estimates. At first I thought it was just a finger perfusion issue but when I add an earlobe sensor it matched the finger readings.

Drs locally have basically said… you look fine, keep using the cpap and we will see what happens. When I asked if I should be worried about my dips they literally say, ‘sherpas live with far lower 02 levels, I would worry about!‘ So not being satisfied, I’ve been scheduled to be seen at National Jewish in Denver which is one of the best respiratory clinics in the country. I go out the end of next month for a full week of testing. My Dr’s are adamant I don’t have COPD, and my cardiologist says it’s definitely not PH which certainly has been the thing I’ve probably freared the most through all of this. While my work up definitely speaks against overt PH, there is I guess related type of pulmonary vascular abnormalities that could be in play.

It is crazy to hear so many of us dealing with this and so few that have gotten to the bottom of it. While I have had COVID, I never had any respiratory symptoms from it. Furthermore, I’ve actually had some little things happen over the last 25 years (getting really sick at higher elevations) that makes me think I’ve been dealing with something related to this for a very long time. I do get a little short of breathe walking up stairs, but I’ve also been training for a full marathon and ran 15 miles last week 🤷‍♂️