My father will be travelling shortly from London to visit me in Israel where I currently live. I've asked him to purchase a few bits of asthma equipment that are either hard to get or overpriced in Israel. I'd like suggestions of where my father might be able to purchase the following items. Would Boots have them or be able to order them? Is there a reliable reasonably priced mail order service he could order from?
The items I need are:
a) a pulse oximeter - recommendations on good brands also welcome
b) Piko electronic peak flow/FEV1 meter - my cons is in love with FEV1 rather than PEFR - I'm hoping being able to measure FEV1 at home might make him more comfortable with taking into account home monitoring.
Unlikely he could get that in Boots. Their website is good see here Boots Diagnostic Electrical Health. I know people recommend Evergreens for nebulisers generally. I'm not sure they stock everything you're looking for though. Otherwise I've found shopping around on Amazon etc and using a reputable stockist works well. There are many pharmacies and medical companies on there and on line generally that may be useful.
For pulse oximetry, you get what you pay for in terms of reliability and accuracy.
Medisave is a reliable website and the one which doctors use as they get discounted rates with BMA membership. That's where I get my medical stuff and it's where I got my pulse oximeter:
I got my piko free as part of a clinical trial. It went in the bin straight afterwards, was way too unreliable - I went back to using a standard mini wright peak flow meter.
They even replaced it no hassle when I said I was getting issues with weird readings. Then I got the replacement and realised it was either me or the way the meter worked and first one wasn't faulty - like nursefurby I didn't find it too reliable, the FEV1 readings were a little bit crazy. Even if I could do 6.1, I can't believe I'd then be getting 1.3 in the same set of readings... But I know others have done well with it. I have an idea though that they are meant to report higher readings than the mini-Wright so you might have to recalculate your personal best and possibly carry it with you when you go to clinic? So you're using same one for consistency,
OMG 6.1!? My best ever is 1.1, usually around 0.9! Wow.
GIven the way the meter behaved I don't think it was real! It also told me I had a PF of 880 one min then 150 the next...I may have a higher personal than predicted best but still not above 600 and that has to be on a good day - I'm not a male basketball star to get 880! Hence me not using it anymore as couldn\t even trust the readings I got which made a bit more sense.
The highest I've done on a 'real' machine ie hospital spirometer btw is 3.7. Not bad at all and better than my predicted of 3.43 but 6.1 is not happening lol.
I would happily take the 3.7 my 0.9-1.1 is at the hospital. I don't think those piko's are at all reliable!
Thanks for the feedback. The piko does seem a bit dubious given both of your experiences.
Nurse Furby : do you have a brand / model of pulse oximeter that you particularly favor?
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my 0.9-1.1 is at the hospital. I don't think those piko's are at all reliable!
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