Newbies! i love my pulse oximeter! U might want to get one!

[elena88]

This is the third day I have had my pulse oximeter, and I just love it!

Here is my cheerleading post about it!

I really thought I knew what was going on when I could download all my data from my s nine autoset, but thats really NOT the whole story!

Anyone who is curious about what goes on with your oxygen at night might consider getting one of these.

My sleep doctor scheduled me or an oxi test again, but it was cheaper to buy one than use the hospital machine, and Im so glad I have my
own now! Its so simple to use and download.. You can even watch it on real time on your computer or on the wrist screen, or see what happened
the night before and match it up to your cpap graphs.. Am I turning into a geek or a nerd?

Anyway, this is where I got mine, and as I said before, Kevin is a great guy, and could not be more helpful!
kevin cooper
http://www.pulseoxstore.com/

here is the one I got the model fifty:
http://www.pulseoxstore.com/Wrist-Oximeters.html

I got one of the wrist models .. I know a lot of the oxi people know so much about all of this, but even a newbie can jump in and learn something too..

I posted some reports and graphs the first day I got it..( i was totally clueless)

Here is an example of a report from a night of wearing the wrist monitor. Its super comfy, you just attach the wrist strap to your arm, and the rubber moniter to your finger. It has a menu that is so easy to use, just click and scroll and choose your function.. and no, Im not getting kickbacks or deals, I just think this is a very important and usefull too for osa therapy..

For instance, I would have never known that my oxygren levels without the cpap were really not bad at all.. But, a lot of little things can add up I guess.
Without the oximeter I would not have known that..
Anyway, if you are learning a lot from downloading your data, and you are wondering, is there something Im missing?
This might be the ticket... Also, the first thing my cardiologist did was order an oximetry test when my husband told her I had insomnia.
Oximeters! a very useful tool!


sample of what oxireport looks like (NO APAP last night) It only takes a few seconds to download, and you can watch your levels in whatever
increments you choose, minute, ten minutes, hour.. you can see how your heart rate matches your oxygren, then you can print the entire
oximeter report.. this is just one page summary, but you can print an ENTIRE twenty page report to if you want!
Im really pleased with my oximeter, even a computer idiot like me can use it.. howevever, NOT without all your guys help, and you know who
you are.. so this is a big thank you too! (Oh, and I didnt have to disturb any spiders to plug the little cord into my computer )

[Jaylee]

You are totally geeking out. It's cute.

[LSAT]

My sleep doctor (pulmonologist) said it would be a good idea to check every few months....I have a friend with an oximeter from which I borrow. He bought his over a year ago and after playing with it for a month or so he has hardly used it since.
I have used it twice in the past year...

[elena88]

You are totally geeking out. It's cute.

"geeking out"
OMG!

<runs off to get some horn rimmed glasses and a pencil protector!>

My sleep doctor (pulmonologist) said it would be a good idea to check every few months....I have a friend with an oximeter from which I borrow. He bought his over a year ago and after playing with it for a month or so he has hardly used it since.
I have used it twice in the past year...

LSAT, Lets not damper newbies excitement quite yet my dear!

[brain_cloud]

Elena, you know you can zoom in on your results by changing the timeframe, right? Here are a couple of 40-minute excerpts from full night sessions (other people, not me):



I'll bet if you start paging through your last sesssion using a 40-minute timeframe, yours will look more like the bottom one than the top one. The old man in the chart above ends up with an average O2 level of 94% and it doesn't usually go below 90%, and the software doesn't even flag these as desaturations. And yet, he is almost continually undergoing apneas.

[elena88]

braincloud, I find this absolutely facinating!

thank you for posting a "normal" graph, as I had no idea what one would look like..

QUESTION: can you have mild desats, and still have severe apnea?

So, this old guy doesnt dip that much, but he is still having apneas... wow..
I dont dip much either.. I would never have known that.. I just sort of scoot along around the mid ninety area but dont seem to be able to keep much of a
straight line.


I did find out about how you can look at your patterns at different time increments, that is such a cool feature!
these are from last night too.. its just amazing to see the patterns! (without apap)

I went and copied two graphs like yours..
There is a little bit of a spike here in the first one..




.......
and here, look at this, it looks like two fingers wanting to touch! I found this one intersting
What I dont get is why heart rate would go up past that little finger touching pattern, when oxygen was so close to 100?

[gpk111]

Elena,
Do look at your "events." That will give you a simple indicator if you don't want to interprest squiggly lines. Your events are high.

[gpk111]

Cloud,
I always suspected contac's definition of an "event." Conversely, if you see a swing of only one % or pulse beat, it could just vary slightly and be rounded up or down.

I also wonder if the pattern varies by machine type.

[gpk111]

Elena,
re the "two fingers" touching each other: those readings are invalid. Note the short grey lines just before the "fingers." They tell you that the oximeter didn't sense anything. It then took soem time to recover and showed starnge reading during the time it took to calculate who was on first!

[gpk111]

Elena,
Maybe you could gain some additional insight into your somewhat frustrating journey if you post some of your CPAP results.

PS Do you know where you got your SpO2 software? You seem to have a newer version than mine.

[elena88]

Elena,
Do look at your "events." That will give you a simple indicator if you don't want to interprest squiggly lines. Your events are high

YEs, I love that you can look at the events on the graph or on the summary.. thanks!

Elena,
re the "two fingers" touching each other: those readings are invalid. Note the short grey lines just before the "fingers." They tell you that the oximeter didn't sense anything. It then took soem time to recover and showed starnge reading during the time it took to calculate who was on first

Oh, gee thanks, I wasnt sure what those meant, but I was more interested in what happened after that.. so maybe I was rolling over or something.
I heard sometimes if you tape it, that helps.. This is just the first couple days I have had this, so still trying to figure it out, but so far, I really
like it.. Also, of course these arent perfect, but I got an idea at least that I dont desat in low numbers like some people..


Elena,
Maybe you could gain some additional insight into your somewhat frustrating journey if you post some of your CPAP results.

Oh thanks, but I already did that awhile ago, it was a saga... that is when I learned to put up cpap graphs.. Those have been
erased already I think.. And really, my journey is not typical, so I dont think a lot of people relate to anyone who feels worse
on cpap.

PS Do you know where you got your SpO2 software? You seem to have a newer version than mine

mine came with the oximeter

[Thomas F.]

I have the same oximeter SW so maybe I can share a few things:

1. The green line is 02 and is matched to the left scale for oxygen level
2. The blue line is heat beat and is matched to the right scale for beats per minute
3. If the oximeter comes off your finger or you take it off at any point during the night just ignore the data soon after putting it back on your finger. It shows a huge drop in 02 as it should because it was not on your finger. A straight black line indicates where a green line should be indicates it's off you finger.
4. In REM sleep you can also see the rip saw - up and down of the O2 levels and increasing heart beat. That's because you are dreaming and your breathing can be more rapid with faster heart beat during wild dreams. But most of the time you should the nice level line shown as the 42 yr old man with some episodes of up/down possibly during REM.

Elena - Are you forcing yourself to sleep on your side or stomach? That way you can compare 02 levels to indentify what is the best position for you to minimize O2 desats. You want to know what sleeping position you are in when dropping below 90% to eliminate that position from possibilty. Also, make sure you clear your nose before going to sleep. Nasal saline, netti pot, claritin - whatever works for you... I find that if my nose breathing is restricted it creates negative pressure (vacuum) in my throat and pulls my tongue into the trouble zone. Try this and see if you get better results (less O2 desaturation)

[wkosturko]

I think maybe the borg might have assimilated you!!

[elena88]

I think maybe the borg might have assimilated you!!

RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!

Elena - Are you forcing yourself to sleep on your side or stomach?

You betcha! look what happens when I sleep on my back.. scroll down for my sleeping on back graph.

viewtopic/t55478/Sleeping-on-my-back.html

If the oximeter comes off your finger or you take it off at any point during the night just ignore the data soon after putting it back on your finger. It shows a huge drop in 02 as it should because it was not on your finger. A straight black line indicates where a green line should be indicates it's off you finger.

aha, that makes so much sense! like when you first put your mask on if machine is on, huge leak spike! this is great info, thank you!

4. In REM sleep you can also see the rip saw - up and down of the O2 levels and increasing heart beat. That's because you are dreaming and your breathing can be more rapid with faster heart beat during wild dreams. But most of the time you should the nice level line shown as the 42 yr old man with some episodes of up/down possibly during REM.

aha! that is very interesting, that all that exciting stuff is happening in REM.. I will try to see if I can get my graphs nice and flat like the normal
guy! thanks for all the great tips! There is so much to learn about this!