How To Choose & Use A Blood Oxygen Meter
Keeping your blood oxygen levels is extremely important, which is probably why people all over the world are deciding to get their own, personal, device that can measure those levels. The device is called a blood oxygen meter, or a pulse oximeter and it can nowadays easily be found and bought almost anywhere. That, however, doesn’t quite mean that you shouldn’t think carefully about where you are purchasing it and which one you are choosing.
Before we get to that, though, let me explain just why this device is important and how it can be useful for everyone. Basically, if your oxygen saturation in the bloodstream is negatively affected, you may start having troubles breathing normally, which can be an indicator of an underlying medical issue that needs to be treated and healed right away. For a long time, this device has been a necessary household object only for those families in which there were people suffering from Asthma, or other types of respiratory and lung diseases.
Yet, it has recently become rather useful for every single household, since the new virus that the world is battling with is known for attacking people’s lungs and causing respiratory issues. So, in order to make sure that COVID-19 isn’t causing lung problems, and in order to address those problems if it is, people have decided to get buy oximeters and have them at hand in case they get infected, or in case they suspect that they have been infected. Now, oxygen saturation has been significant even before COVID-19. It’s just that the spread of the virus has shed some more light on the importance of having a blood oxygen meter at hand.
So, if you are thinking of getting one of these devices, there are a couple of things you should know. First things first, you will need to think thoroughly about which one you are buying, because you want to get the absolutely best value for your money. On top of that, you will also have to learn how to properly use the device, so that you don’t end up doing this the wrong way and thus getting the wrong values whenever you try to measure blood oxygen levels. Fortunately for you, those are the two questions that I am going to be addressing today, so let us get started right away.
How To Choose The Perfect Device
As mentioned previously, the most important thing to do is think carefully about which particular device you are purchasing. There are quite a lot of those on the market and while most of them will function properly, the truth is that you can easily come across some poor-quality products that will not only completely break down after a short while, but also start malfunctioning rather quickly, which can lead to you getting some wrong data on the levels of oxygen in your blood. Since I am pretty certain that you don’t want that to happen, I say you do your best to find the best quality product.
The first thing you can do with the aim of finding the best quality product is this. Talk to the people around you who have already been using pulse oximeters for a while and hear their recommendations regarding the manufacturers you should shop from. Of course, if you know certain medical professionals personally, getting their input on this topic will be extremely useful. Even if you aren’t friends with any medical experts, though, you can always ask the doctors and nurses in your area for recommendations, as I am sure that they will be happy to help.
Apart from talking to the people around you, it would be a good idea for you to do some online research. As you might have concluded it by now, the trick is in finding the perfect manufacturer, meaning that you should check those out in more details with the help of the World Wide Web. The Internet will undeniably be able to provide you with as much information as you need when trying to make this decision. The only thing is, you’ll need to make sure that you are getting the information from reliable and trustworthy sources.
So, for starters, you should check out the websites of certain manufacturers that you have in mind, in order to get a better idea about the quality of the blood oxygen meters that they are selling. Additionally, you should also try and find any comments that previous customers have left online, because those will certainly help you understand how satisfied those customers actually were with the specific products that they bought. If you find that too many people are complaining about particular blood oxygen meters, the best thing to do is avoid buying those. There’s no need to settle when you can easily find some perfect products out there and when you can always learn more about how to make this important choice.
How To Use It Correctly
After spending some time searching for the right device and after finally buying one for you, there will only be one thing left to do. Basically, you will have to learn how to use your pulse oximeter correctly, so that you don’t get any wrong values while trying to determine the levels of oxygen in your blood. Now, the best thing to do would be to contact a medical professional and let them explain step by step how this device should actually be used. If you don’t quite feel like doing that, though, don’t worry. The truth is that these products aren’t that complicated.
First of all, you should remember to warm your hands if they are cold before measuring these levels. Removing nail polish would also be a good idea. It’s also important that you don’t take any measures before getting rested for at least a couple of minutes after walking, or engaging in any kinds of physical activities. Once you are sure that you’ve followed all the rules, just place the device on your index finger and let it work its magic.
