mamooth
Diamond Member
What is a fingertip oximeter? You clamp it on your fingertip. It shines a bright light into your fingertip. It then uses that to measure how red your blood is, which measures the oxygen saturation level of your blood. No finger pricking is necessary.
Why is that important? Because COVID kills by affecting the lungs so that oxygen no longer gets into the blood. Unlike regular pneumonia, people with COVID don't feel bad or out of breath until their blood oxygen level has already gone way down low, when it may be too late.
That's why you monitor your blood oxygen level. If you're just sitting around, your blood oxygen saturation level should be close to 100. A few points off, no biggee. If it's going below 90, you've got problems, probably COVID, or maybe you're lucky and it's just congestive heart failure.
You can still buy these on Amazon, but the $40 model I bought is now unavailable. There are doubtless other sources. Also note that Amazon has about a two-week shipping delay now.
Why is that important? Because COVID kills by affecting the lungs so that oxygen no longer gets into the blood. Unlike regular pneumonia, people with COVID don't feel bad or out of breath until their blood oxygen level has already gone way down low, when it may be too late.
That's why you monitor your blood oxygen level. If you're just sitting around, your blood oxygen saturation level should be close to 100. A few points off, no biggee. If it's going below 90, you've got problems, probably COVID, or maybe you're lucky and it's just congestive heart failure.
You can still buy these on Amazon, but the $40 model I bought is now unavailable. There are doubtless other sources. Also note that Amazon has about a two-week shipping delay now.