All tests have false positives and false negatives. Whether we explicitly say it or not, most clinical decision making algorithms are based on a Bayesian approach.
If you have next to no risk of a disease, don’t get tested for it. You might get treated for it!
Can you suggest one that might pair well with the Contour RollerMouse Red?
I both love and hate this mouse. It’s fixed my RSI but it has been unreliable and limited keyboard choices. Also, I can hear coil whine when I use it wirelessly!
You are describing an anaesthesia circle breathing system, otherwise known as a rebreather scuba set. :-)
You would need to consider the occupant oxygen consumption. A typical human respiratory quotient is 0.8 (0.8 mole of CO2 produced for every 1 mole of O2 consumed). You’ll get a net inward movement of gas into house all things being considered.
Anyway, don’t do if. If you do it ‘right’ the argon will slowly build up and you’ll asphyxiate. Thankfully achieving that level of seal is very difficult.
If you are really worried about PM2.5, just wear a PAPR.
Oh I'm not interested in hermetically sealing my apartment, there are no worries of normally constructed buildings being able to withstand a meaningful difference in oxygen pressure between inside and outside. CO2 pressure though can easily be increased by a large factor (5x is easy) and maintained with humans inside and closed doors and windows.
PM2.5 is easy to maintain with HEPA filters.
CO2 is not easy to maintain without forced ventilation, and really I would like to try inside levels lower than outside levels. (say 300 ppm)
I’m intrigued by the idea of chemically scrubbing co2 at home as well. Hepa filters are easier to use than I’d expected. The next big step is co2 reduction.
Don’t those requirements conflict? Maintaining a partial pressure difference between inside and out for CO2 but simultaneously preventing a partial pressure difference in O2? I guess with a large enough scrubber running constantly it might work but it will be highly inefficient - a bit like running AC at full blast with open windows.
They do to a degree but overall composition of the atmosphere has so much oxygen and so little co2 that the dynamics are quite different.
There’s something like 50x as much oxygen in the atmosphere as co2 so a relative change of 1% nominal value will correct itself fifty times faster for oxygen than for co2 between outside and inside (ok a wild simplification, but still)
The result is that without really intense sealing it’s basically impossible to make a difference in indoor oxygen levels whereas with even a cracked window i can maintain co2 levels two to three times outdoor concentrations in my apartment.
Running a co2 fixer with the place shut up would be more like... running the air conditioner full blast with the place shut up. Yes there would be losses but they would be relatively contained.
Unfortunately, awareness during ‘competent’ general anaesthesia is not entirely avoidable. First, if we were to give all patients a dose of hypnotic agent that would absolutely prevent awareness, a not-insignificant number would die or be disabled from the acute cardiovascular effects. So, we don’t. We give doses that make the risk very small, but not zero. It’s a balance of risks.
Please don’t bring a recorder. It puts you at risk because when we ask if you have any devices, we expect an honest answer. If it is discovered you will lose the trust of your treating team. You can get electrical burns if certain equipment is used. You could have recorded conversations about other patients, which you are not entitled to do.
Yeah, not that'd I'd do it today because mental health is better, but it was pretty low risk. The surgery was on my nose, and the recorder was a cheap alkaline battery one (4.5 volts) strapped to my leg below the knee.
There is no such thing as ‘light’ general anaesthesia. It’s a terrible term used only by non-anaesthetists. Did you have sedation? Movement with sedation is extremely common and not a concern. With sedation, we aim to provide comfort and relief from the anxiety-inducing parts of the experience, not unresponsiveness to noxious stimuli and lack of recall.
We also don’t have the stress of bankrupting our patients. For all the difficulties we face at work; in public practice we are more worried about the parking fee for our elderly patients than the cost of treatment.
My training as an anaesthesiologist has cost the taxpayer roughly 2 million AUD from medical school to specialist qualification. The direct cost to me? About $75,000 AUD.
Some treatments are expensive and futile. We aren’t compelled to offer them. We do have to prioritise treatments and triage patients, resources are not unlimited. By the same token, no-one is denied care on the basis of age or ability.
Many patients suffer from too much medical intervention, and I am extremely grateful that I almost never feel compelled to perform treatments that don’t benefit patients.
Basic respiratory physiology: one of the functions of the nose is to increase the humidity of the inhaled air to close to 100%. Breathing through the mouth defeats this apparatus. Whenever a patient has their upper airway bypassed due to a medical procedure (such as intubation), we use a heat and moisture exchanger (HME) or a humidifier.
I run with a surgical mask during cold weather because it acts as a poor man’s HME.
If you have next to no risk of a disease, don’t get tested for it. You might get treated for it!