Posted on 08/11/2020 9:18:17 PM PDT by terart
I am sorry I am putting this out late...my daughter texted me at 10pm tonight and I never saw it and now can't get hold of her or her husband by phone.
Yesterday she had level at 94, last night and today 92 and today 89. She was tested for COVID Sunday and she got back Negative this afternoon but now I am very worried.
What should I do?
In symptomatic patients, monitoring with home pulse oximetry is recommended. Baseline or ambulatory desaturation < 94% should prompt hospital admission.I would get her to the hospital with that rapid and unexplained SpO2 drop! That is a very concerning low saturation number. Any other symptoms?
She needs to go to ER.
When mine went that low I had a pulmonary embolism.
Do you know what she is using to test her SpO2? If she is using a cell phone w/ app, many of those are very inaccurate. I wouldn’t trust a non-medical device reading if my health is of concern. I would double check with a clinic, though, just to be sure. If she was at 89, she’d be feeling winded probably.
The first time I got my new phone and it told me I had an 86 O2, I was like whaaat? The heartbeat sensor works good, though.
A normal pulse ox is 98 to 100 consistently below 95 is moderately unhealthy. below 90 is dangerous and she should go the the ER or hospital she needs o2 and perhaps a nebulizer
He could call a nurse line. The nurse would be in a better position to say whether or not to go to ER based on her age and other factors. I would not wait.
She needs to ask for a nebulizer treatment with Symbicort or some inhalant with prednosone or dexamethasone.
Be sure to let the probe stabilize after a period of time dont use the initial reading.
Home pulse oximeters are subject to false readings caused by motion. Be sure to keep the hand and fingers completely still while reading.
Consider getting a recording pulse oximeter which will record your data at one second intervals. I use one for my sleep apnea. You can get excellent data during sleep and observe trends. You get almost 29,000 readings during 8 hours of sleep. My O2Ring provides summary stats for your sleep period. Here is one sample mobile app sleep report (not my data shown here this is a bad report!).
Anxiety can cause reading.
the variation on an oximeter from 94 to 89 is nothing to worry about, mine prior to Covid would often vary that much and more depending on time of day and prior activity has a lot to do with it-if it was going down from say 94 to 69 then I would be concerned but you are talking 5% and that is within the error rate of most of the cheap oximeters out there. Know this that 95% of people who think they have Covid do not as evidenced by testing
Below 90 is a danger sign, go to the ER. She needs more tests and an x ray.
Unless of course if you live in Denver or Albuquerque, where 90 is low normal.
Does she have asthma? She might need prednisone etc. Lots of viruses out there, not to mention bacterial pneumonia.
Without more information...
Age, other issues, etc. it is impossible to get good advice. Except...if her readings are that low over multiple readings it sounds like it will be worth getting checked out.
What can YOU do? Not much. I am assuming she is an adult. They are probably dealing with itwhich is why they arent answering. Say a prayer, send them a text, and go to bad.
You have given our information that cannot be interpreted nor understood without a proper history and physical examination. Further there are many people now giving you medical advice without the benefit of medical training.
Here is the best advice. Of your daughter is feeling ill she needs to be seen immediately the pulse ox could be spuriously low or high. There is no reason to ask people who you do not know what to do for medical advice. Including me.
However as a board certified physician there is only one safe answer. Immediate evaluation.
There is an awful lot of misinformation on this thread both on CoVId and other issues. So please advise your daughter to seek medical attention if feeling ill. It really is just that simple.
Yes they are.
She is 25. Sunday went to get a Covid test because she has started feeling bad (cold symptoms and she works as ortho assistant). Has felt bad the past 2 days but questioned if it was a cold flu (though it is a weird time of year). She isn’t at a healthy weight but no other medical conditions. I gave her a pulse ox I purchased from Walgreens or maybe Rite Aid about a month ago. Sunday she was at 94, Monday 92 and tonight, according to her text I never saw, she measured 89 and spiked a fever of 100 (no fever previously)- she did the pulse ox on her pointer finger- no nail polish. Today she received a negative Covid test.
Her husband sleeps like the dead and would never pay attention to the pulse ox numbers and she wouldn’t have thought twice either except, well, I’m still mom and was hammering those points yesterday.
I had her take zinc, D, C, NAC and green tea yesterday and today I had brought her quercetin.
Tomorrow I will strongly suggest her running up to urgent care to get her oxygen tested.
I do appreciate the advice from everyone...I understand it is simply advice and a doctor will know more. It just freaked me out hearing 89 and not being able to get hold of her.
Anything below 90 is an emergency. Respond accordingly
HCQ/ZINC/Zpack regimen reference bump!
For easier access if needed.
terart: You can call 911 for a well person check but try EVERY other contact method first. IMHO.
Not a doc but fever, muscle pain, weakness are CV-19 early signs but breathing difficulties may be a sign things are progressing badly. Don’t wait.
Her Hubbie could check his oxy level as a test check assuming he doesn’t use nail polish. Call them, text them, post to FB, Instagram whatever to try to contact them. If you’re close enough go ring the bell or call a neighbor of theirs?
PRAYERS UP.
Reference:
If it is COVID, the patient should be treated within 5 days of the first symptoms. The very successful Zelenko protocol is as follows:
Hydroxychloroquine: 200mg twice a day for 5 days
Zinc sulfate: 220 mg once a day for 5 days (or some other form of Zinc delivering 50mg of elemental zinc)
Azithromycin: 500mg once a day for 5 days
Zinc is the main anti-viral.
However, to deliver the zinc into the cells where the virus is, you must take hydroxychloroquine. Hydroxychloroquine is a “zinc ionophore.”
If hydroxychloroquine is not available, then quercetin can be used 500mg twice per day.
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