Pulse Ox

We received a new pulse oximeter for Lacy today. The previous one was a total piece of junk and it would routinely read very low causing us tons of unnecessary concern. Last night was particularly bad. I was up very late sitting in her room trying to figure out what was wrong with her... should I take her to the ER in the middle of the night?

After a long discussion with another RT (thanks Wendy, you ROCK!) I decided that there could be multiple things wrong and I would do what I could to fix the situation. One of the possibilities was that her pulse ox was not working. I called our home health supply company and they brought over a new machine.

Tonight was Lacy's first night with the new machine. While the old machine had a little probe that measured through her toe, this new one unfortunately measures through her finger.

We put Lacy to bed only to find that she was chewing on her finger. The chewing would cause the probe to read a low blood saturation and cause the alarm to go off. The first time it alarmed, I walked in to her room, turned on the light and asked,

Me "Did you take the probe off of your finger?"

Lacy "Nope, I was chewing on it"

Me "Don't chew on it, it might break. Go to sleep"

A few minutes later, the alarm went off again. I marched into Lacy's room (where it was pitch black) and flipped on the light to find her in bed with a book open, resting on her chest as if she was in the middle of reading it. She moved the book to one side and looked at me.

Me: "are you still chewing on it"

Lacy: "I'm reading" (remember, it was totally dark in the room)

Me: "nice try. Go to sleep. Don't chew on your finger"

Of course it beeped again only a few minutes later. So I marched into her room and told her that she was no longer allowed the privilege of wearing her monitor. She would have to take it off and give it to me!

Stinker.

PS: I solved the problem with the vent, pulse ox, her heart rate and low saturation all in one day. I needed a good day!