Oximeter Reviews/Recommendations?

plr66 wrote:I am still wondering why so much attention is given to these units on this forum, and so little focus on the many others that seem to be available.

Consider this... the DME lent me a large respironics 'hand-held' pulse/ox for a week. I was supposed to hook it up to my finger and just keep the recording box in the bed with me. I apparently only kept it on 1-2 hours a night because the heft of the box kept pulling the sensor off my finger.

First night with the CMS-50F, I got a full night of data because it sat on my wrist and there was no place for it to go. The other contec units where the entire device is integrated into the finger sensor also look far more comfortable than the traditional pulse/ox units.

gvz wrote: Here's an idea for 100% accurate Sa02 measurements while you sleep (forget about these pesky finger SPO2 things). Go down to your local surgeon.......

Hey, great idea, gvz! Sign me right up!

gvz, what is the WinO2Flow application for in your signature?

All-righty then.
So back to my last question, please?

plr66 wrote:I am actually really discouraged about how complicated and troublesome the CMS oximeters seem to be in terms of software readouts. I am still wondering why so much attention is given to these units on this forum, and so little focus on the many others that seem to be available. I cannot spend more than a couple of hundred dollars on an oximeter, do not need bells & whistles, as I so far have no other complicating medical conditions to monitor...but I would love to hear about any units that are straightforward, reliable, accurate, and have software that is clear & easy to understand. Any such animals exist??

You also need to stop at petsmart, between home depot and mcdonalds and get an aquarium pump to oxygenate your blood, or you will half to let it free fall like river rapids in nature. A few drops of chlorine bleach should keep the flu away too! jlk

gvz & jlk, I don't understand the reason for these last several responses and don't see any humor in them at all, since I'm asking a genuine question and needing help. Why the need for condescending remarks and derailing of the thread is beyond me.

plr66 wrote:

gvz wrote: Here's an idea for 100% accurate Sa02 measurements while you sleep (forget about these pesky finger SPO2 things). Go down to your local surgeon.......

Hey, great idea, gvz! Sign me right up!

But the tape and gauze aren't included. You also have to have a dip stick installed, incase it leaks and you are a quart low. Jim

Might just cut out the middle man completely, get a script for a heart- lung machine, put yourself on by-pass at night, that way you wouldn't need to use XPAP at all. The ULT DENile... Jim

Ignore everything you have seen and heard. Get the CMS-50E. You will thank me for it and if you get anything else I will razz you mercilessly.

davecpap wrote:

plr66 wrote:OMG, dave,after reading this entire thread you noted above, I am actually really discouraged about how complicated and troublesome the CMS oximeters seem to be in terms of software readouts. I am still wondering why so much attention is given to these units on this forum, and so little focus on the many others that seem to be available. I cannot spend more than a couple of hundred dollars on an oximeter, do not need bells & whistles, as I so far have no other complicating medical conditions to monitor...but I would love to hear about any units that are straightforward, reliable, accurate, and have software that is clear & easy to understand. Any such animals exist??

People on this forum like the contec units because they are affordable, recordable, generate reports, relatively reliable. I wouldn't read too much into the rest of that thread - they're discussing the technical details of how the contec units store the collected data. I think its a benefit that the contec units store their data in a non-proprietary format so folks like gvz can develop their own applications to manipulate the data.

Asides from being cheap and cheerful with all the features one could really want.... yes, the data format is non-proprietary so that I have mine set up in such a way that if my SpO2 drops below 90% it trips a latch that launches a golf ball onto the sheet metal roof of our storage shed making sufficient racket to wake up the dogs in the pen in the back yard who think it's an intruder and start barking (I sleep through it) waking up the wife who pokes me to say "I think there's someone in the backyard... get the shotgun". At which point I crank up the O2 being infused into the APAP line and go back to sleep.

Works great.

(If you are going to use my little program here do not use it to raise the pressure on the APAP machine itself - it'll make you fart)

This is NOT a complicated system at all, at all. Unless you crank up the pressure on the APAP machine and then it does get a little complicated for a bit.

gvz take note that the only valve involved is the sphincter valve and it only fails under extreme pressure.

I've been using the CMS-50F for a couple of years and recommend it highly.

The finger gizzie is reasonably comfortable and you soon become acclimated to it.
The main unit is worn on the wrist like a watch and is light enough I never notice it.

The only problem I have encountered is the barrel where it plugs in ... part of that has broken but it still plugs in just fine and remains plugged in.
I emailed Contec about it and they said to send it in and they would fix it, but I didn't do it. Didn't want to part with it for gosh knows how long to go to China and back. Also wondered if I would get slapped with some kind of import duties when it came back.

But if it ever breaks and doesn't work I would be ordering another one for next day delivery.

I've never had a Nonin to compare it to, but I've been extremely satisfied with the Contec.
I have the older C model too ( it was my first one ) and it still works but it is heavy on your finger because the entire unit resides on the finger and it comes off easily ... too easily ... during the night.

I had to turn the C's alarms off because it would go off when it came off my finger while sleeping, and my owner was not happy about that. She's a light sleeper. I wouldn't even hear the darn thing but she would shove me until I woke up.

No such problems with the CMS-50F.

I recommend the F over the finger models ... you will be much happier.

gvz wrote: If, for some reason you believe the Contec CMS software readouts are complicated and troublesome, then I don't think there will be any pulse oximeter out there that will be of any use to you. I can't imagine an easier piece of software to use. You just plug it into your PC, upload the data, and it shows it to you.

Thanks for the straightforward response, gvz. This is great reassurance about the CMS. As I said earlier, I was discouraged after reading the entire thread at viewtopic/t56190/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=50 ... 35#p517835 that Dave posted (and later mentioned that the entire thread was overkill on the technical stuff)....got caught up in the details, I think.

Toronto-Guy and AZ-Willie, I very much appreciate your concrete and clear responses. Very helpful! I'm on my way to order the wrist model, I think, since I hear very little in the way of recommendations for other oximeters. Thanks again.

And T-Guy, please don't razz me mercilessly. The F is a relative of the E!

plr66 wrote:Toronto-Guy and AZ-Willie, I very much appreciate your concrete and clear responses. Very helpful! I'm on my way to order the wrist model, I think, since I hear very little in the way of recommendations for other oximeters. Thanks again.

And T-Guy, please don't razz me mercilessly. The F is a relative of the E!

It's gonna make you fart.
That's why it's the F model.
Get the E.

By the way, gvz only made one mistake in his whole life and that was getting the F model.
Guess what keeps him awake at night?