This trick makes swimming with oxygen possible
Author
Udo Held, Leipzig
Dear members,
I had another idea about how I can get a piece of my old life back without having to forgo the necessity of long-term oxygen therapy. Even though my flow rate is already relatively high at 4 liters per minute under exertion, I'm not giving up; on the contrary, I'm tapping into my inventive side.
I've already been able to swim laps in the pool with my portable oxygen concentrator. Of course, this was done with the lifeguards' permission and by constantly monitoring how many swimmers were in the lane. I placed my Spirit 1200, including the backpack, in a large bucket at the edge of the pool. An additional 15-meter hose extension, combined with the 2-meter length of the nasal cannula, provided enough tether to swim back and forth along a 25-meter lap.
Even when other swimmers are in "my" lane, I have to constantly be vigilant and warn them that no one gets tangled in my hose and is endangered. I've attached a small weight to the hose with simple rubber bands, which I can then maneuver to the edge of the pool by pulling it in one direction or the other.
Summer school holidays have now begun here in Saxony, and the indoor swimming pool will be closed for six weeks. I can't and don't want to wait that long doing nothing. So I had to come up with something again so I could go swimming in an outdoor pool or a lake.
In a shop, I found pool noodles with a hole through them, and that gave me the following idea: To prevent the oxygen hose from sinking in the lake, being overlooked, and thus endangering other visitors, I threaded the entire length of the hose onto the pool noodles. Similar to a string of pearls, but made with pool noodles. Incidentally, they're the perfect size for the thick hoses of the oxygen unit.
I threaded 12 of them onto the hose. I also added a thicker pool noodle for the bucket, which needs to be stabilized in the water.
Well, that didn't quite work out because the bucket had a hole in it, and unfortunately I hadn't noticed it beforehand, so it slowly started to sink. Okay, so I secured the Spirit 1200 to the railing at the swimming area, tied the long rope with the pool noodles to it, and off we went to have some fun in the water.
Naturally, the other bathers became curious about what I was doing with the differently colored pool noodles. That is, until they saw that there was a hose running through them. Then I quickly struck up a conversation with them.
It also looks funny; I almost felt like a rescue tanker laying a barrier against the oil slick in the sea. At least it creates these possibilities for movement in the water.
No, I can't calculate it anymore, but I know where to get the result. It was great fun, and perhaps it will inspire others who use oxygen equipment to regain a bit of joy in life. The pool noodles with the hole, for example, were available at Woolworth in the Allee-Center in Leipzig.
Greetings from Leipzig
