Get Outside To Get Through The Winter

During the winter, especially in colder climates, many people "hibernate". We don't recognize our neighbors in April because we haven't seen them since late November. If you haven't experienced one, Rhode Island winters are cold and wet. New Englanders know Mother Nature has a personality disorder up here. A foot of snow on Sunday turns into slush on Tuesday, and ice on Wednesday. By Friday, good old Mother Nature will dust us with some snow just to hide the ice. This makes the walk to the car in the driveway a blooper waiting to happen. I don't blame people for wanting to stay inside where it's warm and dry. The temperature fluctuations are maddening. Every handshake and door handle you touch is one giant germ waiting to attack.  

That being said, on a recent trip to Park City, Utah I experienced something totally refreshing. It happened while watching the local evening news. As they were going to break, one of the anchors said with a smile and jolly tone, "he's wearing his white jacket you know what that means". I paused for a moment; what the heck are they talking about? I realized it was the meteorologist who had the jacket on. I get it. White jacket equals snow on the way. Let me back up. Yes, I went to Utah in February. When people asked where I was going on vacation and when the response was Utah, I may as well have two heads. Park City is where many of the Winter Olympic events were held in 2002. I guess people forgot they had the Olympics there or were surprised I didn't mention a warm weather destination. Long and short, they claim to have the best snow in the world for skiing so I went to check it out.

Back to the white jacket…All of the newscasters were excited for snow. The meteorologist was grinning ear to ear. Proclaiming it's coming, we need it. What a 180 from a Rhode Island newscast. Here is a group of people who realize, “hey, it's winter it is going to snow”. They have a huge local economy that depends on snow. They truly embrace all winter activities. Granted, Rhode Island does not depend on snow as a boost to the economy. In fact, it can be a drain if town plow budgets get busted. We should still look at the snow in a more positive way. No more doom and gloom of a snow-pocalypse. If you love being outside in the summer then love being outside year round. There are so many outdoor winter activities and the Winter Olympics are a perfect example of this. Use these activities as a conduit to make it through the winter to the spring and summer. You don't have to downhill ski or snowboard. You can cross country ski, go snowmobiling, snowshoeing, ice fishing, sledding, ice skating or dog sledding. You could build a snowman or think of shoveling as a good workout. We all know being active makes for a happier healthier mind and body. Don't get me wrong, I love the summer and so do the people in Utah. Many of the people I met told me they love the winter but the summer is just as good. So, get out in the snow and distract yourself and the summer will be here before you know it. You may discover a new passion.

Good Luck,

Dana Lesperance

Good Sleep Hygiene

Oxygen Cylinder Duration App Review

A few weeks ago I was told about a new app that calculates oxygen tank durations. Immdeitely thinking it would help me, I pulled out my phone, went to the app store and downloaded it. The name of the app is O2 to Go. It's put out by Responsive Respiratory. Responsive primarily manufactures oxygen tank regulators. As the app was downloading, I thought to myself "I'll never again be scrambling for a tank chart or trying to make some crazy calculation based on tank volume". As I would soon discover there was a slight problem with this theory. Using charts and doing calculations was all I knew. After nearly 6 years in the industry those things have been ingrained in me. Basically what happened was two minutes after I would figure out how much O2 a patient had remaining I would remember the app. That being said let me tell you about the app.

The O2 to Go app has four tabs on the bottom labeled; home, equipment, cyl-fil system and contact us. If you're going to use this app on a regular basis the home tab is where you're going to live. No pun intended. The equipment and cyl-fil tabs basically advertise Responsive's product line. I will say rather unobtrusively for a free app. The contact us tab is self explanatory.

The home tab is the tank duration calculator. The calculator asks you to make selections in four categories. First being O2 device. The O2 device is the regulator type. For example, a 5:1 ratio or a pedi regulator. The second category is liter flow. The liter flow options will change based on what "O2 device" is selected. The third and fourth categories are cylinder size and cylinder % full. I'm impressed with the amount of options in the cylinder size section. They have a couple tank sizes that I've never seen before. Cylinder % full keeps is simple. The options are; full, 75%, 50%, and 25%. The down side to keeping it simple is when a patient tells you they have a third of a tank left. This did happen to me. So I simply rounded down to 25%. When the tank lasts a little longer, the patient will be happy.

A couple of side notes. You must fill the first category to fill the second and so on. The results of the calculation will automatically appear in a blue box labeled Cylinder Duration. The app is available for iphone and android. Just search Responsive Respiratory in the App Store or Android Market. As you may have guessed I did break my habit of looking at charts. Thanks for reading. Let me know what you think of the app.

Reviewed By

Dana Lesperance