Coughing and low oxygen - correlation

[Tomswife]

PALS Tom was coughing. It was a ongoing, mild unproductive cough. It was more of a dryish cough. The nurse had just checked his lungs that day and they are clear. His oxygen also was reading low - 88. I hooked the oxygen up to his bipap. There is a port for oxygen. Once he was on the bipap with oxygen for a while, the coughing stopped.
Does coughing cause low oxygen?
Or does low oxygen cause the coughing?

 

[Nikki J]

When you are coughing you aren’t breathing properly. You know yourself you feel breathless for a minute after a bad coughing episode. Of course some of the causes of cough are associated with low oxygen

 

[lgelb]

Might try a dry mouth/throat spray and of course monitor hydration. And check machine/furnace filters.

Not sure if he was on the BiPAP at that point. If he is triggering the backup rate on his BiPAP (meaning the machine is starting breaths instead of him), that could cause irritated coughs/low sats also, in which case you could try increasing trigger sensitivity (such as from Medium to High).

You can also listen for if he seems to be ending exhalation earlier or later than the machine, and adjust Cycle volume [the amount of air left when the switch to EPAP occurs] lower if he wants to have longer breaths, higher if he wants them shorter.