While medications and treatments are vitally important to those who have COPD and various heart conditions, there are other ways you can stay ahead of your health from the comfort of your own home. Solutions as simple as regularly tracking your pulse oximetry can go a long way toward ensuring you catch problems early.
As familiar as we are with doctors or nurses placing a pulse oximeter on our fingers during appointments or hospital stays, the technology is relatively new. Pulse Oximeters were first introduced in the ‘80s but weren’t widely used until the ‘90s. In the last 30 years, we’ve become more familiar with their uses and benefits and improved their accuracy.
In this article, we will go through the various benefits of tracking your pulse in terms of your continued good health and explain how those benefits could give you further control over your conditions. Healthcare can be a bit unnerving, especially when diagnosed with serious conditions such as COPD and heart conditions. But that doesn’t mean you can’t have peace of mind between doctor visits and treatments.
What are Pulse Oximetry and Pulse Oximeters?
First, we will expand your understanding of the technology we are discussing. What exactly are we talking about when we say monitoring your pulse oximetry? What exactly are pulse oximeters? While most people might know the answers to these questions, we feel it is essential to explain them just in case you aren’t familiar with them.
Pulse Oximetry
Simply put, pulse oximetry is a noninvasive test that measures the oxygen saturation level of your blood. This means it can quickly discover small changes in your oxygen levels. Your blood's oxygen levels determine how efficiently your blood is carrying oxygen to the rest of the body and your extremities.
These readings can help you recognize trouble. If you aren’t breathing properly, a pulse oximetry reading will indicate this in terms of a percentage out of 100. (For reference, the normal range is 95-100%).
Pulse Oximeters
Meanwhile, pulse oximeters are small clip-on devices that give pulse oximetry readings. They are most commonly worn on the finger and can be used in various medical environments, from simple office visits to emergencies or critical care situations.Â
Some common conditions that doctors use a pulse oximeter for are chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, pneumonia, lung cancer, anemia, heart attack or heart failure, and congenital heart disease. The times you might see a doctor or nurse use such a device aren’t limited to these conditions. Most doctors prefer to get a pulse oximetry reading for any visit to their office.
Why Use a Pulse Oximeter
As we’ve mentioned before, the pulse oximeter is often used in the doctor's office or hospital to monitor various lung and heart conditions.
What exactly are the doctors monitoring for? Let’s take a look.
Reason for Using Pulse Oximeters
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To assess how well a medicine regimen is working
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To evaluate if you need assistance with breathing
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To determine how helpful life-saving measures, such as a ventilator, are
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To monitor oxygen levels during and after surgical procedures
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To evaluate how effective supplemental oxygen therapy is
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To assess someone’s ability to tolerate increased physical activity
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To evaluate whether someone momentarily stops breathing while sleeping — like in cases of sleep apnea — during a sleep study
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To determine whether or not someone might be having an emergent heart problem
Why Frequent Monitoring Can Help
COPD is a long-term lung condition that makes breathing difficult. In such cases, monitoring oxygen saturation is vital. A drop in oxygen levels can signal a worsening of the condition, often even before the patient feels any discomfort or symptoms.Â
When it comes to heart-related issues, a pulse oximeter can easily detect a change in oxygen saturation levels, which indicates that the heart isn’t functioning correctly. For example, during a heart attack, blood oxygenation and pulse changes can occur due to damage to the heart muscle and the resulting reduction in blood flow to the heart.
But what about heart disease and chronic heart conditions? Frequent monitoring with a pulse oximeter will determine if there is a consistent pattern of lower blood oxygen saturation. This itself leads to an understanding that the heart might be under some kind of strain, and you should consider getting in contact with your doctor for further treatment and advice.
By monitoring these levels, patients and healthcare providers can act quickly to prevent serious complications or exacerbations.
Home Care Made Easy
Med-Pat Solutions has always understood that personal health should be our top priority. With healthcare visits becoming increasingly expensive each year, it's easier to find home solutions to monitor our health.Â
This is why we expanded beyond our phone expertise and started producing a line of affordable home healthcare items. Our pulse oximeters are accurate to within 2-4% and easy to carry wherever you go. We even offer them as part of our total health bundle and our healthy kids bundle because pulse oximetry isn’t just for adults.
If you are unsure whether your chronic condition could benefit from a pulse oximeter or you just aren’t sure how to use one, please contact us. Our team is ready to help you make a decision for you and your family’s better health today.