Question about COPD and Oxygen

[RN and Mommy]

How much oxygen is too much for a COPD patient? We had a patient who was on 3 1/2 liters NC who insisted she be brought up to 5L with activity. I though that a COPDer should only be on 1-2 L because too much oxygen can knock out their drive to breathe? Am I way off here? Thanks!

[JClaire1970]

I was scouring the net for info regarding COPD and O2 administration because my patient (I work in a long-term care facility) had a lab that came back with an elevated CO2 level, a dx of COPD and has used 5L O2 and a pulse ox of 99% since I started here several months ago. When I questioned the nurses I work with, I was told that she came to us with that amount of O2 being given and it hasn't been changed because it has always been this way. (I don't know about you, but for me is one of the craziest answers ever, yet one of the most common answers I hear!) I titrated her down to acceptable 3L and 93%SAT (which was according to the order of maintaining an O2 SAT of 92%) but by the next time I worked they had put her back up to 5L . Now today she has an elevated CO2 of 41. Am I out of line to think that this elevation may be caused by the constant over-oxygenation?