Hi,

I was wondering if people who have sats monitors for home always get them through the hospital.

Noah wears a cast on his torso full time this will change over to a brace for this summer and then back into a cast for winter to control his scoliosis. He also has a hypoplastic left lung so is prone to respiratory distress when he gets a virus. As he can't expand his chest fully in the cast he is suffering from respiratory distress regulary, I can usually monitor it at home and take him in to hospital when it gets really bad, which is getting harder and harder to tell and I can't keep staying up all night monitoring his breathing and then looking after him during the day as well as my baby.

I would like to have a sats monitor at home so I know when he is really struggling and when to take him in, at the moment I teeter between taking him in or just seeing for a bit longer if he gets better.

When I have asked about what point I take him in and they recite the symptoms of distress which he shows often, and if I took him in every time we would be there all the time. The sats monitor gives an accurate picture of what his oxygen levels are.

I know he doesn't completely need one as I think they have to be bad all the time for the hospital to rent you one but I was wondering if there was somewhere else I could hire one from so I can get some sleep without worrying so much.

Thanks

Hi our situation is a bit different. Our eldest daughter now 6yrs was born witha tumor in her lung. She had surgery at 7mths old where they removed half her left lung. The next few years following surgery she was constantly unwell with chest infections & pnumonia. Many times we weren't sure weather to take her to hospital or not. We enquired about a sats machine at PMH and they said that if she looks like she needs her sats checked than she really needs to see a doctor. There solution was that if I had concearns than I could call the resp clinic at PMH directly and then discuss with them what to do. They also said to find a good GP or after hours clinic (close by) that would see her at a momments notice to check her sats levels and listen to her chest. Then if they felt it needed further investigations we would then head off to PMH. This new plan worked great as our daughter started to get very distressed when we would pull into the hospital carpark and it would be very hard to calm her down (it was also very hard to see her so upset). So in the end it meant we only took her to hospital if absolutely needed.
Sorry if I haven't helped, goodluck

Take a look at this one from this Australia site. I have bought several other items from them in the past and have been happy with their products and service.

http://www.clinicalguard.com/handheld-puls...300ah-p-39.html

If you are going to use the monitor to alert you if your child's sats drop in the night don't forget to check to make sure the monitor has audible alerts - many don't.

If you are not going to use the monitor continuously maybe you only need a small finger pulse model to do spot checks. My son is fully monitored at home but I use the small clip on to do spot checks if we are out.

http://www.clinicalguard.com/pediatric-pul...ldren-p-75.html

I have an oximeter too, but only the little one similar to Jojobean. I just use it to spot check, it isn't alarmed and I bought it off ebay.
We are supposed to go to hospital when his O2 sats go below 92, but 90 sounds good to me.
HTH Margaret

Thanks for your suggestions I will look into them. It is good to know his sats to see when he is really going down hill.