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sleepinglass wrote:Never the less he still does not trust it or believe the results.
He is allergic to the medical profession and will not consult one, no matter what I say or do.

He's on a boat up the river of DeNile and until he wants to accept the fact that something may be going on he will continue to paddle up the DeNile.

sleepinglass wrote:Maybe I should assume that his dips into the 80s are normal dips and there is nothing to worry about.

No they are not normal under normal circumstances. He needs to be evaluated medically but you may have your hands full getting him to get it done.

Lazer1234 - Does your mother show symptoms of sleep apnea - e.g. waking up choking/gasping for air, tired even after 8-9 hours of sleep, etc. If so, a sleep study could be called for. She might not need a cpap, she might need something else.
If you stress to her that if she has a problem, it will shorten her life and maybe by decades and you want her around for (grandkids, your wedding, whatever big events might happen that she might want to be around for).
If she has decent insurance, better to go find out then to not know. Sleep Apnea can be scary as it does nasty things to a person's health untreated and we hear rumers of how bad the cpaps are to use and how it won't help us. But in reality, being diagnosed correctly and treated for it can make a big difference on day to day life (feeling sooo much better), and also on length of life.

sleepinglass - You need to get him tested. He may have more hypoapneas, my husband is more that way. Lots of shallow breathing and no visible breathing for 30 seconds at a time - often (without cpap). Have you watched him while he slept to see how he breathes? What about getting some of his friends to try it, if he is lower them them all..... Is he into science, what about broaching it as an investigation or experiment? Tell him knowledge is power. Have some serious talks. Round up some friends to have some serious talks. But his O2 is pretty low.
There seems to be 2 trains of thought. It is not that bad so don't worry about it, vs I want to be as healthy as I can (e.g. not let low o2 or sleep apnea put regular constant strain on my body). You need to decide what camp you are in and what camp your partner is in. My & Hubby are in the we want to live to be 90 and not be decrepit camp (e.g. camp #2).

Hosecrusher - we have Tried!!! to get a cardiologist interested in hubby, but he is not sick enough for them to care (he is on BP medicine & cholesterol medicine both low doses, just got a second BP medicine diagnosed, but he doesn't need bypass surgery). He did pass full testing - stress test, CT scan, etc. and was pronounced just fine other than having some plaque show up in the CT scan. But that was 2 years ago and I was not loving that Dr on our followup. We have such a hard time finding Drs that don't say take a pill & come back next year, we finally found an endocrinologist we like and a sleep Dr we like (I feel like I am on a roll ). We are trying a nephrology (kidney) Dr that specializes in high blood pressure as we had a Dr friend we trust say they are the experts in BP - so maybe he can give some insights, but that is a month or so out (was a 3 mo waiting list for one we thought would be good). Our goal to get him healthy and off all meds.
OH, I just remembered, hubby has lots of PVCs (premature ventricular contractions). Something that alerts non cardiologists, but the cardiologists just note it and get bored. Again, maybe we haven't found a good one, but he has been in urgent care a couple of times the last few years for unrelated issues and they note them but don't get real concerned. Apparently from what I have found online, they are not of concern in and of themselves. Athletes get them a lot as their hearts have learned to adjust to what they put them thru rather than a regular steady beat. They are only a concern if combined with other health issues that hubby doesn't have. But again, I would like to find a good cardiologist to confirm things (2nd opinion).
I know that the lead oximeter might be giving a false reading, so I think we will try the polar HR strap (we have a good one) just to see what it says. Maybe that plus the oximeter and searching once more for a good cardiologist will make some progress.

FYI - the magic numbers for insurance covering oxygen is 4 or more minutes of under 88%.
And our cm550fw was pretty darn close to the DME one in readings,

HoseCrusher wrote:That is an ugly chart, but...

Notice that there are close to 57% artifacts. This could change things a little, but further testing could help clarify what is going on.

I dont understand 57% artifacts? What is that?

sleepinglass, You may find some of the information in this thread useful.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=97343&p=903675#p903675

CpapWift, PVC's would explain the erratic pulse rate. It is unfortunate that you are having difficulty finding a medical professional that will listen to you. Keep looking. Sometimes you may be able to find an ND that will listen.

You may want to consider adding more green leafy vegetables to your diet. This will provide some additional magnesium and that may help smooth out the heart rhythms.

Lazer1234, artifacts in the recording occur when the oximeter loses the signal for a short period of time. If you zoom in on the data you will see grey lines indicating the loss of signal.

A large number of artifacts can corrupt the overall report. 57% means that for a large period of time the data signal was interrupted in some way. Once the signal is interrupted there is a small amount of time over which the device searches for a valid signal and if these artifacts occur frequently the moving averages can be corrupted and that makes the data less meaningful. The most frequent cause of artifacts is movement of the finger wiggling inside the device but there are other causes including bright lights, skin pigment, fingernail polish, and erratic blood flow.

HoseCrusher wrote:Lazer1234, artifacts in the recording occur when the oximeter loses the signal for a short period of time. If you zoom in on the data you will see grey lines indicating the loss of signal.

A large number of artifacts can corrupt the overall report. 57% means that for a large period of time the data signal was interrupted in some way. Once the signal is interrupted there is a small amount of time over which the device searches for a valid signal and if these artifacts occur frequently the moving averages can be corrupted and that makes the data less meaningful. The most frequent cause of artifacts is movement of the finger wiggling inside the device but there are other causes including bright lights, skin pigment, fingernail polish, and erratic blood flow.

I was shocked at the high rate, but has come out why. My mother could not turn the meter off, so it was going all day without finger ........

Oops, its hard to get a signal with no finger...

I've found that my pulse ox report can vary depending on how I have it on my finger. My waking Spo2 is around 95, so I adjust the finger boot until I'm getting around 95 before falling asleep. Now my basal is normally around 94 and my average low is around 91-92. My Spo2 event index is similar to my AHI, varying from around 2.5 to 4.