Is anyone using an oximeter?

[Ianc2]

I am considering buying one of these devices. Any feedback would be appreciated?

[Hidden]

I am using the Medi Direct Vascular Monitor which embraces blood flow, blood oxygen and HR. I got it from Amazon UK, suggest you go to their website and look at it. Get back to me if you need further information.

John

[Hennerton]

I have just bought one as part of my armoury against the virus. It is simple to use and at least if I do get the virus, I will be able to see whether I am going badly downhill and need professional help, or whether I can sit it out at home. ( It is probably a useful thing to have around anyway, virus or no virus).

[Nathan53]

Hi Ian - I bought one 2 yrs back from for about £10. They are very easy to use and show heart rate, sats and some have additional features. Heart rate on mine seems accurate as it corresponds with other devices. On looking online today the prices seem to have tripled no doubt due to Covid and people buying them. Argos have one at £19.95.

[fallingtopieces]

I’ve had one for years. My Sats are 97

[Coco51]

Yes I have bought one. Just to check if levels drop too far if I get COVID 19. I read that people with this virus can function with very low levels of oxygen and don't realise till too late that they are at risk. Normally low levels like this would make them collapse, but with COVID 19, mysteriously, they don't straight away.

As this fascinating article describes "reports of comfortable patients with discordantly low saturation rates began spreading rapidly among doctors online. One particularly arresting image, posted on Twitter by a New York City emergency-medicine physician, shows a patient calmly reading on her phone while her overhead monitor reveals a saturation rate of just fifty-four per cent." At which point the patient is in danger but doesn't know it.

You can register and read it for free.

newyorker.com/science/medic...

[marcyh]

I use mine with all my episodes and keep it at my bedside. Handy little gizmo and low price. My BP monitor wasn't keeping an accurate HR count and this is more dependable. I also like the fact that it shows the heart rhythm pattern.

[Hidden]

I've just bought one from Amazon

amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B085ZN...

A bit more than I wanted to pay but I wanted one now not in July.

Used it a few days and it seems pretty good

[irene75359]

Yes, we bought one, not for daily use but in the event that either of us became unwell. This was prompted after seeing the news about coronavirus patients being unaware of how low their levels were (and the marked effect on subsequent recovery rates).

[Cat04]

Yes I have one just to check if I feel my heart is playing up. Gives spO2, HR, rhythm and PI (not sure what that is!) Lidl £15.00 when they do their medical items.

[Hidden in reply to Cat04]

it's the strength of the pulse being monitored, between 0.4 and 20 is normal

[Ppiman]

We had one given to us to review a year ago but gave it, then, to our daughter-in-law, who is a nurse. At the time, we didn't think we needed one, but with the recent revelation about oxygen levels and Covid, we bought another from eBay from a Chinese company based in Glenfield near to Leicester. We expected it to come from China and to take ages, but it came within days. We paid under £30.00 and I see recently it had come down a bit in price. It works well and I can recommend it. However, take note that if you have Reynaud's or cold fingers, it doesn't work well and thinks the finger has been removed, making it a bit more fiddly to use. Also, on an elderly friend whose fingers are rather arthritic and thin, it wouldn't work. I think she would need a child's version designed for thinner fingers.

Steve

[secondtry in reply to Ppiman]

I have had similar experience due to poor circulation in the fingers; frustrating as sometimes Sats will show first as 97 then start declining rapidly to 92 or conversely start at 88 and increase rapidly, living me wondering what my true reading is.

[Ppiman in reply to secondtry]

Have you tried using your thumb or even toe?

[secondtry in reply to Ppiman]

Thanks, I will try that now!

[Fred77]

Hi i have a heart sure oximeter its pretty good,

Note if you have cold hands no oximeter will likely be accurate enough , also nail polish on the hand its used on , can make a difference.

and not give a proper reading.

Make sure your hands are at least warm enough when using these devices.

[momist]

I have just bought one from an eBay vendor. Sadly it doesn't work when in the closed position, but reads if you hold the spring open while resting your finger inside. It's going back . . .

[jedimasterlincoln in reply to momist]

I'd wonder if that the readings were accurate anyway if you had to hold it open a bit and it wasnt flush around your finger.

[Patsy10]

I've had one for quite a few years now, it was recommended by a cardio nurse. I have found it very useful and definitely seems to be accurate. A few months ago after being in AF for a couple of days I took extra meds and felt quite light headed, checked my rates and found it was my oxygen level that had dropped, concentrated on deep breathing exercises for five minutes and was back to normal. Great little gadget which I would recommend.

[jrd210]

Not really any use for A Fib and might help if you get Covid-19. Thats about it!

[jedimasterlincoln]

I have one. Very basic. Does tell me if I am batting high, and if the beats are regular. I use it for comparison to the oximeter on my phone app (which shoes a trace when it measures so I know what the rhythm is like)

Critical care nurses at work use it to monitor patients when they're back on general wards to check sats and things more accurately than the integrated machines we have.

[Bayonnejoe]

I have been using an oximeter for years. Same one I get on my finger when I go to my family doctor. My cardiologist says they are excellent for measuring blood oxygen levels and totally inaccurate for measuring heart rate in AF patients. I am looking for a better way of measuring my HR.

[Bridges4]

I have bought two devices for measuring oxygen and temperature both via Amazon . Surprise surprise both made in China! It's a funny old world

[Hidden]

Our doctor sent out a list of things to have on hand during the pandemic. Thermometer, Oximeter, Spirometer and a Nebulizer were at the top of the list.

He told us that if anyone had upper respiratory symptoms to use the Oximeter multiple times a day as well as the Spirometer. If Oxygen levels dropped to 93 or we had difficulty lifting the ball on the spirometer, it was time to get to a hospital for supplemental Oxygen.

He also recommended having Vitamin A, C, D, Zinc, and quercetin on hand along with food grade 3% hydrogen peroxide and sterile saline solution to nebulize at 1.5% mixture. He also recommended doing deep breathing exercizes four times a day, even when perfectly healthy.

We got these recommendations because we use a functional medicine practitioner who incorporates allopathic, natural and orthomolecular medicine in his practice. These recommendations get censored on social media so doctors who believe in this have to communicate directly with their patients. Big Pharma does not like this approach!

[Ianc2 in reply to Hidden]

Deep breathing exercises?

[Hidden in reply to Ianc2]

For some tips check out Brit David Abel discussing how he managed to stay off a ventilator doing deep breathing exercises. He was hospitalized in Japan for 3 weeks after being taken off the Diamond Princess. He has a You Tube channel where he discusses his illness and recovery and the deep breathing techniques he used to bring his oxygen levels up.

I remember when my mother in law was discharged from the hospital after a bad episode of filling with fluid from CHF. Medicare paid for a respiratory therapist who came to the to work with her on taking deep breaths and holding her breath and then exhaling slowly, as well as sleeping with the head of her bed elevated and also lying prone on her stomach to take pressure off her heart and lungs. They also used the spirometer to get her to breath deeply and exhale completely.

[S11m]

When I was ill the dr told me I was "just depressed" and discussed anti-depressants.

I sought a second opinion, and the Dr just wrote out a prescription (for anti-depressants) and said: "take these". I asked the pharmacist what they were, and she took my pulse and told me I had Bradycardia.

I bought a pulse-oximeter and it told me that my HR got down to 30 at night, and my SPo2 to 75. Then the Dr took me seriously, and, eventually, I felt better after two pacemakers, three cardioversions and two catheter ablations.

[Ianc2]

And a partridge in a pear tree no doubt. Thank you all for your replies. I have just had a device delivered by amazon . Put it on and watched it start beeping as my pulse dropped to 28 and then bounced back to around 50. I have an implanted recorder in my chest … but I didn't feel a thing.

I shall make a note and show it to my cardiologist . The source of my misfires is in an area of the heart that is very tricky to get at, next to a major artery and nerve, with a 30 % chance of going seriously wrong as the thickness of the heart wall at this point is minimal.

I suspect a pacemaker may be beckoning. Such is life. Thanks everyone, your contributions are appreciated