Pulse oximeters, and general covid-related shopping tip

[firecat]

Various articles are mentioning that pulse oximeters can warn if a person with covid is getting worse, before they get shortness of breath.

Which means, of course, that now it's getting hard to find inexpensive pulse oximeters.

My general covid-related shopping tip is that I'm having better luck at less well known online retailers. E.g. amazon doesn't seem to have any pulse oximeters, but as of 30 minutes ago, vitalitymedical.com had some in stock.

Finally my years of attempting to boycott amazon, and struggling to find online retailers that aren't secretly amazon in one way or another, are paying off!

Comments

[sonia]

Thank you for the tip! Given that it seems like we're going to be dealing with this for a while, I went ahead and ordered one.

[firecat]

Yay for being prepared.

[snippy]

I've read they're not very reliable and wondered whether they're reliable enough to still be useful. Do you have any information about that?

[firecat]

No, I only have anecdata: I have several of different brands and they all seem to give similar results which feel like they're in the right range, more or less. I.e., if I feel short of breath, my sat is usually in the low 90s; if not, in the high 90s; when I fly it measures lower, which is expected in the lower pressure of aircraft cabins; I used one with my iThing to track nighttime sats to see if I needed supplemental oxygen, and it said I did, and I feel like I sleep better with supplemental oxygen.

[redbird]

I'm noting that to think about when I'm more awake; thank you.

[sabotabby]

Oh man, I don't even own a thermometer for humans. I have a candy thermometer that will tell me if my temperature hits 100.

[jesse_the_k]

...or maybe you're turning into a caramel?

/runs away

[firecat]

Read an article yesterday saying that 70% of ppl checking into NYC hospitals with COVID did not have a fever at all.

[silveradept]

I have a feeling, as more gets published, we'll see runs of this nature regularly on whatever is considered useful. I'm hopeful that pulse oximeters are actually useful, and not covid quackery.

[firecat]

I hope so. It might help a lot if more people noticed lung damage earlier.