Buy a pulse oximeter off of Ebay?

[ehusen]

Hey guys,

I'm just sort of "free-associating" here, but in the quest to get the best treatment, has anyone thought of getting a pulse ox machine for home use? I'm certain my insurance will NOT cover something like this.

I looked around and found a lot of small machines that you take a one-shot measurement but obviously that is not what we want here. We want to monitor our levels overnight.

So I did a search on Ebay and there does appear to be several for sale. Any thought on this? Any recommendations?

My other concern would be that most of the auctions say "you must be an authorized buyer". Just what does that mean anyway? That I've got to pay a cut to the DME mafia?

This is more of a curiousity for me. But it might be useful information. And for my family, my daughter is very prone to getting pnemonia in the winters and we've done the emergency room quite a bit. A pulse ox. could certainly help us determine how she is doing. (Of course when she wakes up hyperventilating and slightly bluish, we really don't need the pulse ox data at that point...) What is it with my family? pneumonia, croup, allergies, and OSA. Do we just not like oxygen?

[ozij]

What is it with my family? pneumonia, croup, allergies, and OSA. Do we just not like oxygen?

For a number of years I had been getting bronchitis every winter. I lived in an apartment with a faulty chimey, and the air in it was getting worse every year.
A year ago (to the day!) I moved to a place where the air is cleaner.
No bronchitis.

O.

[BP]

I was thinking the same thing. I found many places online that sell ox meters, fingertip and earlobe types. Just google it. They were ranging from $400 and up. I didn't look into it enough to see if they would sell to anyone, but unless there is a law against it I fell confident someone online will sell one to you.

-BP

[IllinoisRRT]

Again, from the DME side of things, before you go blowing money on one, talk to your doctor about getting an order for an overnight oximetry done through your DME. It should be ENTIRELY FREE, and they should download an entire night's worth of data for you. You will need a doctors order for this, but if there is a DME he/she normally does business with, he/she will probably have standing orders. You may is a really expensivehave to sign a consent to the testing, but you or your insurance should not be billed a dime for it. If you are, find another DME. I think that a pulse ox is really expensive for no more information than it gives you, and it can be misinterpreted (for good or for bad) variety of reasons. I would save your money and take advantage of some of the ::gasp:: good things that DMEs can do!

[rested gal]

Great suggestion by Christine RRT. If there's a DME you've been doing business with and they'll do that on a doctor's order for free, that's the way to go! "Free" is good.

In my case, I've never done any business at all with a local DME. All my cpap equipment purchases have been from online stores or online auction sites. Also some trades with other message board posters.

Back in the spring, a friend let me borrow a used recording pulse oximeter. Friend had bought it on Ebay for under $400: Invacare Sleep Printing Pulse Oximeter IRC735B

It lists on Invacare's site as *starting* at $1,600!!
Click here to see it.

Doesn't really need the optional software (yet more money!) as it can print out lots of interesting statistics the next morning on a little roll of paper tape in the back of the little machine itself.

The friend let me borrow the used Ebay bargain-priced one for a couple of weeks. After much whimpering and whining and not being able to go to sleep right away as I usually can, I got used to the hateful finger clip and was able to use it night after night - until I ran out of fingers!

I'm such a wimp. Felt like I was in the "Princess and the Pea" story!

Interesting... well, to me, anyway ...little nuggets of info from the paper printout tape:

__________________________________________

Cold Turkey 5 hours 45 minutes, sleeping with no CPAP machine at all.

Pulse rate: High 103 bpm, Low 55 bpm
Average SPO2: 93%
SPO2 STD: 2%

% of time spent in various ranges:
95-99 18.6% of the night
90-94 76.9%
85-89 4.0%
80-84 0.5%
70-79 0.0%
0-69 0.0%

Time per SPO2 range:
%SPO2 Duration
95-99 01:02:16
90-94 04:17:20
85-89 00:13:20
80-84 00:01:44
70-79 00:00:00
0--69 00:00:00

Total duration below 90% SPO2:
00:15:04

Total duration 88% SPO2 and below:
00:11:28

Longest single event with SPO2 88% or below:
00:05:04

Started at:
01:38:34

My note: "Started at" doesn't mean what time it was per a wall clock - it means that 1 hour and 38 minutes into the recording time is when the longest single event of dropping to 88% or below occurred. Sounds a lot like when first REM normally happens, doesn't it?

_____________________________

By contrast, here's a typical report from one of the 6 nights I used the recording pulse oximeter while using my autopap.

Blissful sleep almost 8 hours with autopap doing what it does so well:

Pulse rate: High 104 bpm, Low 54 bpm
Average SPO2: 96%
SPO2 STD: 1%

% of time spent in various ranges:
95-99 99.7% of the night
90-94 0.3%
85-89 0.0%
80-84 0.0%
70-79 0.0%
0-69 0.0%

Time per SPO2 range:
%SPO2 Duration
95-99 07:52:56
90-94 00:01:12
85-89 00:00:00
80-84 00:00:00
70-79 00:00:00
0--69 00:00:00

Total duration below 90% SPO2:
00:00:00

Total duration 88% SPO2 and below:
00:00:00

Longest single event with SPO2 88% or below:
00:00:00

__________________________________

What doesn't show on the printout was how I felt in the morning after not using CPAP the whole first night. Awful. Woke up groggy, slow to get started, didn't want to get up, draggy for an hour that morning. Not a "morning person." Same feeling I had had each morning all my life pre-cpap. I took a nap that afternoon on autopap.

You wouldn't think that so few minutes spent with SPO2 down in the eighties would have such an effect. After all, the average SPO2 for the cpap-less night was 93%. But the slow dragging myself out of bed was exactly how I remembered ALL previous mornings being -- all the many years before I got on cpap treatment. Could function fine once up and going, but the "getting up" ... never felt like I'd had enough sleep.

For me, the problem OSA presents is probably the frequent sleep disruptions, more so than desats. Although being below 88% for even five percent (approximately) of the night sure wasn't helping.

Bottom line for this long post...I think it's a very good thing to record one's SPO2 with a recording pulse oximeter at least one full night with the cpap machine going. If the levels look good for one night on cpap, that's probably all the oxygen levels checking most people need to do. In that case, what Christine RRT advised is a'plenty - having a free recording pulse oxi test by the DME, ordered by the doctor, once anyway.

Having that done at least one night could be extra important if a person has been on cpap for several weeks with mouth and mask leaks under full control, but is still not seeing improvement in how they feel.

[ozij]

After much whimpering and whining and not being able to go to sleep right away as I usually can, I got used to the hateful finger clip and was able to use it night after night - until I ran out of fingers!

gasp. Thank God for small mercies!
Can you imagine how difficult it would have been to get used to CPAP if we had to use a finger clip, instead of one mask on our one face?


Aren't we lucky? Suppose we had to try masks on ten faces?


O.

[rested gal]

You're a riot, ozij!!

You're also right. But I don't care!!! That's how much the $%#! thing bothered me!

I'd rather struggle with...with...(I can hardly make myself say this)...with...a PROFILE LITE on my face every night than wear the dreaded FINGER CLIP.

If it hadn't been borrowed, just imagine what lab-ratting I'd have done to that miserable little red-eyed piece of plastic with the spring from h*** in it.

[ozij]

If it hadn't been borrowed, just imagine what lab-ratting I'd have done to that miserable little red-eyed piece of plastic with the spring from h*** in it

Lets see:

*Put some wd40 on the spring?
*Soaked the thing in warm soapy water (oops, wrong contraption, that's for masks)
*Replaced the spring with a piece of elastic?
*Taken out the spring and wrapped the finger clip securely around your finger with pantyhose?
*Or - hey, this is serious - with a Dr. Scholl toe bandage, alread known to abolish swoosh mark?
*Tried to wear in to gloves or mittens? (OK, I know you know it wouldn't have worked... and who wants to wear mittens to bed anyhow ... but then, who wants to use pantyhose on their head? )



By the way, they make alternative, much kinder sensors, for use on baby's fingers.


O.

[rested gal]

but then, who wants to use pantyhose on their head?

People actually do such a thing?

Good list, btw. (Making notes...)