How a finger pulse oximeter helped save my Dads life

The pulse oximeter my sister and I gave my dad for Christmas has probably saved his life at least a couple of times in the last year.

He keeps it hanging around his neck. Once time he woke up early one morning and wasn’t sure what was wrong – well thanks to the finger pulse oximeter he was able to quickly measure his oxygen level and discovered it was dangerously low. He did deep breathe exercises to rapidly get his oxygen levels higher. After it was back up he and my mom searched for the source of the problem which ended up being a fault in the hose to his oxygen.

In about April last year after suffering from extremely low energy, shortness of breathe and inability to convert oxygen and later to expel carbon dioxide my dad was put on oxygen. This he carries or carts around 24/7.

The feeling of not  being able to breath as understand it is like the feeling of drowning without water. Someone else said it’s like breathing through a straw all the time.

My dad mentioned that the doctor had him rent a blood oxygen measurer so he they could see how well the oxygen was doing throughout the day. Well my dad really liked it because he is kind of a gadget guy and likes the idea of measuring things and seeing the immediate results. He did it faithfully. He has diabetes and has been the poster boy for taking his insulation medication for the past  15 years.  After he had to turn the device back in he mentioned to his doctor that he would like to get one. The doctor told him the cost was like $500 -$2000. My fiscally conservative dad thought no thanks. I thought, gulp,  if it would save his life then perhaps it would be worth it.

I decided to do some research was to see if there was a way to get a good quality oximeter online and cheaper than what the hospital was willing to sell them for. I discovered that perhaps the hospital prices were a little inflated. I did a search and ended up on Amazon and thoroughly  reading through the reviews.

There were several things to consider and the price varied greatly. To my surprise one of the cheapest ones got the best reviews. But I was a bit skeptical. Obviously I wanted to get the best quality for the price considering it could make the difference for either life or death.
I wanted it to be accurate and easy for him to take the measurement.

I didn’t even know what  the gadget was called. I put in oxygen measurer, finger tip oximeter, pulse oximeter. There were several brands. Check mate, Choice, Concord
Nonin,, onyx, Octive tech, etc, ranging from  $50- $700.
I was willing (gulp) to get the most expensive one and (if necessary) hit my brothers and sisters up to chip for it as in investment in my dad.

Over  and over I returned to the one with the best reviews and great features and was also one of the cheapest ones.,. How odd. But with the numerous positive reviews and low cost to boot I decided to go with it. If you are interested the one I chose is…
There has been other instances when he his oxygen has fallen below levels and he is able to qickly confirm that it is low oxygen and do something to quickly remedy the situation.
I am so happy that he is happy with it. He says every time he goes to the doctor they pit his little fingertip one with the expensive hospitals oximetry measuring device and  it comes out dead on with it. He is quite pleased with it and shows it off to all his friends ☺