thoughts on need for oximeter

[christinepi]

During both my initial sleep study 3 months ago and my recent titration study my oxygen level never dropped below 93%. Does this warrant the acquisition of an oximeter? I continue to see no benefits from CPAP and some posters have suggested an oximeter to me, so I looked at my study results and found the 93% figure. Any thoughts?

[DreamDiver]

During both my initial sleep study 3 months ago and my recent titration study my oxygen level never dropped below 93%. Does this warrant the acquisition of an oximeter? I continue to see no benefits from CPAP and some posters have suggested an oximeter to me, so I looked at my study results and found the 93% figure. Any thoughts?

Every household should have three things: A fever thermometer, a blood pressure cuff (sphygmomanometer) and an oximeter. Oximeters are becoming so inexpensive, it behooves us to buy one if we can afford it. If more people tested to find out whether they were having desaturations during the night at home, they would be better armed with good information when visiting the doctor. Children and young adults can get sleep apnea too. A lifetime of anxiety, heart problems and stress can be avoided, the earlier problems are caught.

Lastly, it can become a last line of defense on that dreaded night when power is out, your CPAP battery is drained and you must sleep without CPAP. Oximeters can be set to alarm if desats get below 90%, waking you up before you go too low. Yes, it's waking you up, but it's better than the alternative.

[john.michael]

I just decided to get one. My PSG had levels as low as 80. Seems the best way for me to really understand the effects of my treatment.

John

[HoseCrusher]

Let's see now...

No major obstructions to drive down your oxygen levels, and no benefit from xPAP therapy.

It doesn't sound like pulse oximeter data would be helpful.

[christinepi]

That's kind of what I was thinking. But then, I'm a beginner at this.

[Pugsy]

While not hugely expensive, I haven't bought one. I did have significant desats in sleep study to 73%. Early on in my therapy I was having bad headaches and wondered about the desats, so I asked the DME about getting the doctor to order an overnight pulse ox. Ended up with it 3 nights because got the pulse ox on Friday. I didn't have any significant desats at all to blame the headaches on. Blamed the headaches on my bad neck. I was never even billed for it. My DME supplies masks only since I got my machine privately. I thought it was really nice for him to do it for me.

If I had a history of no desats, I doubt I would spring for the money to confirm what I already knew. The oxygen levels during the sleep study are pretty cut and dry, they are hard to mess up.

If you are curious maybe the DME will let you do an overnight with their machine.

Now those people with a history of significant desats and they want to know, I am all for it. Anything that validates treatment and clarifies any questions is beneficial.

Just my opinion, for what little it might be worth. Everyone has their own reasons for their opinions and that is the way it should be.

[Mark NJ]

Every household should have three things: A fever thermometer, a blood pressure cuff (sphygmomanometer) and an oximeter. Oximeters are becoming so inexpensive, it behooves us to buy one if we can afford it. . . . .

At a price < $100, I agree with DreamDiver.

The problem isn't so much what is your O2 saturation right now; last night; last few nights. The problem is what is your O2 saturation for the rest of your life? A secondary problem is what the saturation is of each of your loved-ones?

A person's circumstances change over time. S/he might be fine on O2 now, but some time in the future have a problem which might be informed by knowing what the O2 stats are on the occasion of the future problem. If a recording oximeter is in the drawer with all the other CPAP paraphanalia then it's a simple matter of sticking it on your finger (or loved-one's finger) and sleeping thru a night (or a 24 hour period). If you see-something then say-something to your doc.

If the recording oximeter cost > $200 then I'd agree that lots of people would regard that as a bit pricy. Yet, at < $100, lots of us can afford it. The more of us that can afford a recording oximeter the more of us can lend it to many of our friends once a year. (This week I lend it to Alice and let her run it on each of her family members for a night; next week I lend it to Bob and let him run it on each of his family members for a night.) How many walking-apnea-tics would we discover thru such a procedure?

Turning the problem around, if Tiny Tim thinks he has better things to do with $100, he can ask around among aquaintances with some sort of apnea problem. One or another is bound to have a recording oximeter. Tim can borrow that oximeter every 3 months just to keep an eye on his O2 saturations.


In a few more years these heart defibrolators will get cheap enough that every other household will be able to afford one. Then, the neighbors who can't afford them will still have one just a couple minutes away and they will save a lot of lives.

My $2 (inflation you know).

Mark

[AMUW]

I'll try to keep my comments on the topic posed by christinepi:
- I assume that your doctor diagnosed some symptoms of Sleep Related Breathing Disorder, enough to recommend a PSG study; if they were not of the Obstructive Sleep Apnea category, and didn't cause a reduction in air inflow -- with a high probability of O2 reduction -- then what where they?
- so what did the PSG measure that led to the recommendation of CPAP?
- in my case of moderate-sever OSA an off-CPAP night shows a beautiful correlation between apnea related oscillations in the flow curve and in the oximeter curves; but on-CPAP there is much less desaturation
- it is not enough just to have an oximeter around ... to never buzz if you have no severe desats; I also want to be able to see the curves in the computer and get statistical analysis thereof; and that fancy an oximeter is muchmore expensive, and is probably not covered by insurance

[Mightily_Oats]

I'd be inclined to agree with the people proposing that you get hold of one for safety's sake. Your oxygen level is only down to 93% now - for some reason, maybe unrelated to apnea, etc. - but what about in the future? Isn't it something you'd want to track regularly anyways?

The oximeter I have is the CMS-P from Contec, a Chinese company. It doesn't have its own readout but rather it plugs into a computer's USB port and comes with Windows software. One of the benefits of an oximeter like this that can track levels continuously is that you can do your own makeshift self-sleep-study: leave it on all night and see if you can spot apnea episodes by the dip in oxygen levels. The monitoring software that comes with the CMS-P has a button to save all the data it has collected as a file, then a separate program they provide lets you review it. IIRC there is a way to export to a spreadsheet, which handles the statistical analysis that AMUW mentions wanting.

My CMS-P cost me around $100 USD plus shipping a little bit more than a year ago; I bought it from someone in China on eBay, an eBay user named medonline888. (Though you can buy them from many medical device retailers as well.)

This is the cpaptalk thread where I originally found the recommendation for the CMS-P:

Anyone tried the CMS-P yet? Or bought from Contec?

Standard caveat: I'm not a medical professional, hence this isn't medical advice, and the only way to safely monitor your health is to see your physician regularly.

P.S. After writing the above I just went and wandered around medonline888's eBay store and they're now offering a Contec CMS 50E which appears to have the CMS-P's USB interface and Windows software, but also has its own OLED display so that you can use it without a computer. It says ~$110 plus shipping but I'm not entirely clear on whether it includes a USB cable, which would cost you a few dollars more at any store selling computers.