Oxygen levels

[yaf_user681_15459]

Maddie has a 24hr sats machine at the mo to monitor her levels. The alarm keeps going off!! Arghh!! It's either her heart rate too high (@150) or her sats dipping to 89-91.

I know sats dip when you are asleep but to how much?? Also when we went for a walk today her heart rate set the machine off repeatedly that we took it off in the end!! And it was only a stroll too! Also her sats started off great at 99 and then as we walked they got lower and lower and hit 89.

But weirdly she is really well at the moment. They weather is calm and dry. Wind and rain is her trigger and there's none right now. She is looking well!!

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I'm not going to give a number as it may be different in paediatrics. If you're concerned, or if it's causing you to have to remove the monitor, I would contact the docs who are wanting the monitoring to discuss it. Then they can do something if concerned x

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Hi Emily, I think Lynda is right that you should contact the team, but I know that sats probes on fingers don't like it when your hands are very cold - could that have been a factor on your walk? If Maddie was walking and talking and seeming quite well then I think you're right to be suspicious that her sats weren't 89 in most of her body - though they might well have been in her fingertips due to the cold!

Sometimes they look at the mean overnight saturation as being more important than brief dips. I happen to have been given the various guidelines by the CF centre I'm being tested at, and they recommend overnight oxygen if the mean overnight saturation is <93% (in children) - so I'm guessing that is a meaningful guideline if a long way from an actual answer. However, I'm sure the specific depth and length of dips below this level is also important - so I guess they'll look at the whole graph at the end of the study.

The other possibility is that you've got a faulty machine - or that the alarms are set too low. If they're just wanting to gather data then perhaps they could even turn the alarms off for you so that you can get a proper picture?

Cx