oxygen saturation

are there any lower cost devices available for measuring oxygen saturation levels overnight? I am interested in one to use here and there as an occassional reference.

I would be interested in the answer to that question, too. Desats were more of a problem for me than my AHI as shown on my sleep study. But worst of all was PLMD. I don't think there's anything out there short of another PSG to give me the answer to that, short of forcing my husband to stay up and watch me sleep all night or getting a camcorder that can tape in the dark and tape my sleep and see if I'm still beating my husband up all night, as the RT at my sleep study said I must be doing all night long.

How low are we looking for

http://www.miami-med.com/pulse_oximeter.htm
Toby

Here's what I found out about this subject about a month ago as I did a "pulse-ox" study over a weekend. There are NO insurance codes that a DME can use to charge for this study, so if you want or need to have one done, the doctor needs to order one through a prescription. In this case, the medical center where the sleep doc works, faxed a copy of the prescription (that the doctor gave to me) to one of the local DME's. I picked up two of the devices on a Friday afternoon and used one on one night and the other on the next night (even though there would have been enough storage on one of them for both nights) over a weekend and took it back to them on Monday afternoon to have them download the data. They printed out a copy for me to keep and mailed another copy to my sleep doc.

I looked into the cost of these things (there's a number of them available) and found the cost of a decent one (Respironics) to be in the $700 to $900 starting range. On top of that, the software to download the data isn't cheap either. If you think the Encore Pro and cardreader are expensive, it'll sound cheap compared to this software. On top of that, you have to buy a special cable to hook it to your computer to download the data. Lastly, you need a prescription to purchase one.

If you can get a doctor to write the prescription, it's definitely cheaper to borrow one occasionally (like FREE)


Den

If you can get a doctor to write the prescription, it's definitely cheaper to borrow one occasionally (like FREE)

Talk about great ideas!!! I am going to make a call to my doctor to see if she can write me a script for this. You had it done through your DME? I thought perhaps the sleep clinic, not the DME. That's a very interesting concept. I thought they only had the new equipment to give out, not things like that. Like I said, I just keep learning and learning each day on this site.

Thank you so much for the info. The prices are way too steep for me...

Thank you. Here is another link for similar items:
http://med-electronics.com/
I am probably dreaming (which is good, right?) - I was hoping to something under $100 or at least around $100. I've already spent enough to buy a car on OSA treatment and really can't afford much at this time.

Again, DME speaking up here...
Wulfman is correct. Ask your DME if they do free overnight testing. You will probably need an rx from your doctor, but if you are a patient there they might have standing orders and can basically do one whenever you want it (within reason of course- it doesn't cost us anything but being a pest won't pay off either!). If you have a good relationship with your RT I would say monthly isn't out of the question. It's easy to do it that way and totally free. I have patients that I've been checking on and I'll just drop it by her house even if she's not there and she will drop it off at our store the next day. Very simple. And better than dropping a big wad of cash on your own oximeter.