I do twice daily readings (am and pm), then log the readings. Since I began the log I've realised if I put the oximeter on my left index finger I regularly get a low reading for sats , typically 90-93.
Switch hands and on my right index finger the sats reading is 'normal', typically 97-99.
Pulse reading is the same left or right hand and agrees with my blood pressure monitor.
Is this something I need to worry about or can it wait for the next email report to the cardiologist, set for 30 June?
Yes that’s normal my do the same. Mine run at 92 to 86
Tori, you are a serious sanity-saver, thank-you
No problem happy to help
I love having all this technology to monitor things at home but it can be a bit worrying when the booklets that come with the tech don't go into much detail about something as simple as changing an arm or hand causing readings to vary so much.
How are you, keeping busy while you wait for your next consult?
I know what you mean. I tend to go on how I’m feeling than Relying too much on the tech. I’m doing ok had a bad day the other day but I’m ok now. My consultant is phoning me on the 11th of June
I'm sorry to hear you had a bad day but glad you're feeling better.
I usually do email exchanges with mine but I've also done phone consults, I quite like the emails but the phone ones are bit more difficult for me (my essential tremor is reaching my voice, makes speaking difficult at times). I put him on speaker phone, makes it a bit easier if I don't have to hold the phone in my shaky old hand, lol, plus shuffle my notes and note taking, and concentrate on modulating my voice so the poor man can understand what I'm saying
I highly recommend the speaker phone route if you can - it really does make things easier.
I Always use the speakerphone when I’m talking to anybody
Hi Sunnie, Kevin always has a different reading on each hand. Also if his hands are cold, which they frequently are due to his reynaulds, he either doesn't get a reading at all or it takes ages to start registering anything!
Hiya, Lezzers, and thank-you! I knew about not trying to get a reading with cold fingers (or moist ones, for that matter) but not the part about readings varying. The booklet really should have mentioned that bit!
I am going to mention it when I email the cardiologist the end of June but I'm no worrying any longer thanks to the replies here. In truth I wasn't letting it worry me too much as my pulse is steady and I'm not having any pain or even shortness of breath, etc, but it did make me wonder if the variation was normal.
Hi Sunnie
I haven’t changed hands but have changed finger, left hand index finger and middle finger two different readings! Index typically 98-99 middle 94-95 and Sometimes the alarm goes off on my middle finger as it drops below 92 will change hands later today and let you know. Pulse and PI% is the same on both fingers pulse matches my machine. Have always used left hand as that’s what they used in hospital. Just waiting to video call the GP, starting to love this technology!
I love the tech also, I still marvel at how great it is to be able to use the phone or a video link to 'see the doctor' but it doesn't make me uncomfortable in the slightest.
From the replies I'm getting on the oximeter question, it's clearly 'normal' for the readings to vary depending on which hand/finger is used. I've done mine this morning but I think I'm going to give a test go using every finger on each hand just to see what happens.
Hi Sunnie
Just had video appointment, got to love it, sat in the virtual waiting room drinking my coffee!
Hope this continues, she wants another appointment in a month.
You made me laugh about using every finger to see what happens,
Have a Morrisons delivery in the next hour so will be wiping down food for the following hour!
I have every empathy for your coming chore!
My husband picked up our latest ASDA Click and Collect yesterday - it was a 'Big Shop' so I spent over an hour wiping in the cramped vestibule yesterday after he brought the bags in. I've found it's faster and easier doing the wipe-down right there just inside the front door easier despite how cramped it is in that little space. It saves me having to disinfect the kitchen after, everything is wiped in the vestibule and I lean out into the inner hall to put the cleaned item on the tea trolley (yes, I have a tea trolley, lol, my mother said no real lady goes without a tea trolley and the convenience it offers).
From there I roll the trolley into the kitchen and put it all away. Then I collapse on the sofa for two hours to recover, lol!
Shopping as become a military operation!
SO true! I would have loved to ride along yesterday just to get out of the house - but I needed the time he was out to prep for his return. Lol, you can see why we try to do a monthly Big Shop - this way the big push is only once a month!
Have been doing the same, big shop Morrisons and in between I get a delivery from Iceland, ( like their fish)
I'm using one now, as well, to add to all my daily monitoring. (Next up: daily temperature check!) One point to watch out for: if you use the oximeter while the BP monitor is operating, it restricts circulation and gives an incorrect reading if they're on the same arm. I standardise my oximeter readings to the right hand, BP on my left arm. But I did test it out on both (without a BP monitor) and got the same results. May be just one of those things.
When my husbands nurse did his blood pressure & used the oximeter at the same time she turned his finger upside down in the oximeter. So it definately makes some difference but not sure why turning your finger over corrects the pressure?
I do the oximeter first, remove it and go to the BP monitor, so does the nurse when I actually go to the physical building for an appointment. I can't imagine trying both at the same time especially with the finger upside down in the oximeter, it just seems quite odd to me unless the nurse is simply putting the oximeter on a sort of reminder hold while she does BP? No, that doesn't make sense either.
Something new to ponder!
Now that one had me going back to the instruction leaflet on my device! It's a clip-type machine, and the finger goes in palm-down. It's my (Withings BPM Core) BP machine that's perhaps out of line: when I'm getting my ECG and valve sounds recorded, I press it in to my chest and hold it with my right hand: the left hand can then be palm down. I agree it is more usual to have BP measured palm-up, because it makes it easier to line up the cuff with the artery.
Now I have BP monitor machine envy Mine is good but wow, yours is really good!
But all BP monitor units for home use need to be checked for calibration at least once a year. I bought mine at Boots and take it in once a year to be checked. I get a little 'recertification' slip with it detailing if it needed recalibration or not - my Omron seems to need recalibration every three years or so but taking it in once a year means it stays reliable.
How often does your unit need to be checked?
I've taken my unit along to consultant appointments as well - helps to be sure mine and the clinic units agree. I have to email a spreadsheet report once a month (during lockdown) to my cardiologist and if my home readings differed too much from the ones I was having taken regularly at the clinic before the lockdown, any report I send the cardiologist would be pointless, he'd have to take into account the difference between my home unit and the cardiac nurse's. This way we know both units agree so every bit of information emailed is as reliable as though the cardiac nurse had done it.
Also helpful for accurate readings is having two or three different sized cuffs for times fluid retention rears its wretched little head, btw.
I've not yet had this one for a year, and the readings are consistent over time, so I'm not worried yet about calibration, though I take your point. I am not on BP meds and my next cardiology consultant clinic isn't until March 2021: if there's any real need, I'm sure she'll book me in for a 24-hour monitoring exercise to make sure where we are. I have an ascending aortic aneurysm hence the interest in checking heart noises from time to time (they're fine) and at some time in the next few years I'll need surgery and want a way to check and report on Atrial Fibrillation (though I haven't had it). I used to work in a gym where we checked everyone for BP, so I take your point about the cuff sizes, though my own arms are (still) skinny.
Ooooh, skinny arms, you lucky person, you! I had those once. Now I'm working on losing my bingo wings I wish I didn't have! I dislocated my biceps four years ago (and everything else I didn't break in that hand-arm-shoulder-collarbone) and the time off from my rowing machine and free weights left me with those bingo wings.
Physio says I'll probably never lose them now (well, I am 63, but still!) but she also said I'd never regain more than 40% use in that arm - and I'm up to 95% now
Sat Outside Having A Beer
Cold hands and feet - any answers? 
Cholesterol targets are different if on medication?
Cold weather definitely makes a difference !!!
Angina with different pain
