If your physician has advised you that you need to begin using a pulse oximeter to monitor the level of oxygen in your blood, you will want to make sure that you get clear instructions about how to do it, and also make sure you know what to do based on the results you get. You can find pulse oximeters for sale at many different retailers, but if you don’t know how to use the thing, it won’t do you any good. Be sure that you talk to your doctor openly and make sure you understand the instructions, since this is a true piece of medical equipment that could conceivable save your life!
Oximeters for home use are mostly of the finger variety, meaning they slide on the end of your finger. It may surprise you to know that the device requires no blood sample, and it works painlessly. The way it actually works is much like a flashlight. It shines a beam of light down through your nail bed and then measures what light comes out the other side (think of holding your hand over a flashlight in a dark room, and how your hand glows red). The reason this measurement is helpful is because blood blocks a specific wavelength of light when it is bound to oxygen, and another wavelength when it is not bound to oxygen. By measuring both of these lengths and comparing them, the device calculates a percentage of oxygenation.
As for why you might need to use this device, there are so many reasons that it is beyond the scope of this article to name them all, but they can usually be boiled down to a few reasons: a problem with your lungs or your heart. Either you have trouble taking in enough oxygen (lungs) or your heart is not able to pump the blood quickly enough around your body to keep up with your body’s oxygen needs.