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I get a lot of emails from people who are considering going to college to become a Respiratory Therapist. But because of something a respiratory therapist said, you are now having second thoughts. My humble advice to you is: Don't fail to do something you think you'd enjoy because of something someone else said.  Okay? Don't do it. Don't let someone else's negativity towards their own job sway you from doing something. Let me just give you some of my own examples. I'm 47 years old now. Often I wonder what my life would be like today if I had become a teacher. I had thought long and hard about choosing the career of teaching long before I ever became a respiratory therapist. So, here I was a Senior in High School. I had two teachers I really respected. I asked both these guys if teaching was a good profession. To my dismay, they were both very negative about the job, "There's a lot of burnout! The pay isn't good!" Are some of the negative commen...

I thought it would be neat to do a pithy review of how respiratory and cardiac medicines work. We will begin here with a basic anatomy lesson, beginning with the nervous system. As we proceed through our discussion I will introduce some of the medicine we commonly use. So, let us begin. There are two nervous systems. Autonomic Nervous System :  It controls the many body functions that you do not have control over, such as your heart, vessels, stomach, and intestines.   Somatic Nervous System :  It allows you to control various parts of your body, such as your arms, legs, and breathing.   For the case of this post, we are only concerned with the sympathetic nervous system. I will delve into the somatic nervous system in a future post. Sympathetic Nervous System :  It has two divisions that both effect heart, smooth muscles, iris of the eye, salivary glands, and urinary bladder. Sympathetic Nervous System (SNS) : Also called flight or fright.  It prepares th...

Originally published January 6, 2016. I was recently interviewed by Rebecca Knutsen, a staff writer working for Advance for Respiratory Therapists.  She said she was working on a brief article that explores when to administer oxygen to hypoxemic patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder. The following are her questions followed by my answers.   1.  Please describe hypoxic and hypercapnic drive : Hypercapnic Drive : The central chemoreceptors on the medulla monitors the partial pressure of arterial CO2 (PaCO2). A normal PaCO2 level is 35-45 mmHG. When PaCO2 is high (>45 mmHg) a signal is sent to the medulla oblongata at the base of the brain to speed up breathing in order to blow off excess PaCO2. When PaCO2 levels are low (<35 mmHg) a signal is sent to the medulla oblongata at the base of the brain to decrease breathing in order to allow PaCO2 to accumulate. This is the main drive to breathe. Hypoxic Drive : The peripheral chemoreceptors...