Oximeter anyone?

Yes, we have just bought one off ebay. We acquired it because DH had collapsed lung as a side effect of bypass surgery and was on oxygen for several weeks. It is reassuring, if he is having a breathless day, to check and discover, his blood oxygen is within normal bounds.

A doctor on the R4 programme 'Inside Medicine' last week was recommending that every household should have one, much as they would have a thermometer.

Yes Monica, that’s the programme I heard too. We also have BP machine so pretty well kitted out now.

DH has to have weekly blood tests at the moment, and he was asked whether we had a BP machine and when he said yes, he was asked to take his own blood pressure and pulse before coming in. To minimise contact between the nurse and him.

Dare I say that I bought mine during the first lock down when D Cummings said he had one?

I’ve just ordered this one from Lloyds Pharmacy online. Not the cheapest, but I wanted it quickly as daughter and son in law have Covid and are not doing very well. Many on offer online would not arrive for several weeks. This one is coming tomorrow.

We bought a cheap one months ago, seems to work OK, but in my case because I’ve usually got cold hands, it doesn’t even register. When I do get it to work, I’m pretty high, same figure that I had at the surgery. Same with the BP machine that a couple of years ago alerted me that my BP was sky high, yet I felt perfectly fine. I was hospitalised over night with those figures!

Yes, I bought one early last year after reading about making sure your oxygen blood levels were 98. I use it from time to time. They were on the news again last week.

DH bought a really cheap one on line several years ago. I don't know accurate it was but it showed up any variations on what its usual readings were and that was all we needed.

Yes we have one , my daughtet thought we should have one as I have Asthma and Angina , she is concerned about me , she bought it off Amazon for £22. But after that article was on the news I expect they will be in demand and the price will go up. ,

I have a BP machine, Peak Flow Meter and an Oximeter - all very useful gadgets for monitoring my health and I also keep a pot of Siemens Multistix to hand, for urinalysis. Fortunately my lovely GP is not at all threatened by me having an informed knowledge of my own health signals and encourages me to do my own monitoring when it's necessary.

I was once on holiday in the Italian mountains (ironically recovering from illness) and got chatting to a fellow holidaymaker who was a GP. I explained that I had a wonderful relationship with my own doctor and that we approached my health concerns as a team - he responded by saying he would refuse to treat me if I was his patient, because all health knowledge should "reside with the doctor".

grannyactivist, I have the same three gadgets and since this pandemic started, have noted down readings when I think about it. Last March when there was hardly any traffic and no planes flying overhead to the nearby airport, my peak flow went up quite considerably for a while. Unfortunately it has gone back down again.

I have a peak flow meter and a BP Monitor, but I hardly use them. If I do, I’ll be on the phone to the Doctor every day...I will get anxious if it shows a slight increase or decrease. So I leave well alone. The way I “feel” is my marker, to see my GP....

I don't have asthma but recently bought one in case anyone in the family should catch Covid so that we could monitor out SATS. It cost £29 on Amazon and had good reviews elsewhere. Make sure to buy one with a CE mark, You may feel you would never use one and hopefully most people won't, but you may not get one in a hurry if you did catch Covid.

I got mine online because they’d sold out in all the pharmacies locally. Our GP recommended getting it as my daughter has Covid.

I bought one after the BBC ran an article on them last week. I wish I hadn’t, because it’s showing some very odd pulse readings and the oxygen level alarm goes off fairly often. ? ? ?

Bought one after hearing about an NHS trial in Hampshire where a local surgery was handing them out. The GP who was interviewed was talking about silent hypoxia, and as my DH has had really bad chest infections over the years, I thought it could be a useful item to have in our house

There was a feature on the news that said over 65s would be given one free of charge but I have heard nothing since. DH bought one last year during the first lock down along with a thermometer. It is useful to have these things as you get older, we also have a BP monitor, an ECG tester and blood sugar testing kit as DH has type 2 diabetes and atrial fibrillation. The ECG tester is particularly useful as you can transfer the results to your phone or print them out. The last time DH had to go to hospital because if a rapid heart rate he was able to show the doctor the result of the ECG on his phone and the doctor was really impressed.

I have mild asthma and COPD. So, I bought myself an Oximeter few month back. Every time I used it I got low reading around 89 - occasionally went up to 94, but usually lower than that. I am not hypchondriac at all, but this began to frighten me. Mentioned it during phone consultation with nurse at GP practice and she told me to come straight in to see her. I did, and her oximeter gave me a reading of 95.

So I assume machine I had was faulty - complained and received a replacement. Still got these low readings. Eventually I took it with me when I was due to see nurse. Her oximeter gave a reading of 97, mine at identical time gave a reading of 91.

Decided it was not worth worrying about and threw this little machine away.

I've gad one for a couple of years and use it regularly as I have asthma and copd. My oxygen levels are usually around 94-95 but can drop to 90 if I've been exerting myself.
I bought mine from Amazon too, it was about £10
I think it's a very useful tool to have, especially if you have any kind of lung problems.
By the way you should leave it on your finger for three or four minutes to stabilise. Sit quietly and relaxed to get an accurate reading.

Ours arrived today, what a great piece of kit, well happy with it

My daughter got ones before Christmas in case needed I told my young friend in Africa as they are having a dreadful time
( never hear anything in the news) and he alone has been nursing 15 family members anyway I thought I was giving him the thumbs up but he had already bought one ? the country has no ventilators so they are having to find their own ways to treat themselves

We bought one when my GD was hospitalised with asthma and they wouldn’t release her till her oxygen levels were high enough. I’ve used it more since last March than we did at first.

We have one and b/p machine on suffers with white coat syndrome so checks b/p regularly .