Pulse ox readings of 89 and 90

[matrips]

My friend texted me her dh’s readings tonight.  He’s had 99 readings in the past.  It worked normally for her and the kids but he kept getting low readings.  No other symptoms. He’s been working.

Experience? knowledge? I read where it could be a sign of pneumonia or early covid. At this point she’ll treat it as such but wondering any information that might help.

[prairiewindmomma]

That is worrisome.

That kind of drop, for us, happens with severe asthma.

It is worth monitoring closely tonight, and seeking medical advice tomorrow.

[prairiewindmomma]

Adding, it can be a sign of covid.

[melmichigan]

In case this hasn't been mentioned, I would make sure his hands are adequately warm before testing.

[Matryoshka]

That is low - and the whole reason they're telling people to check this. Normally people feel really crappy at those levels and get treatment,  but it seems like with Covid it can take your levels low before you realize there's a problem - though all your organs are still being oxygen deprived.  I saw an interview with a doc today who said they'd seen Covid patients walking in to the ER with numbers in the 50s. That's normally delerious and passing out cold territory. 

Years ago my dd was sick and we took her to the doc - she had O2 levels in the high 80s - she was taken by ambulance directly to the hospital and spent 5 days in PICU.  He should get seen stat for those levels! 

Those levels can also be seen with asthma, but then should be able to be relieved with albuterol treatments. If those don't take, it's an emergency. 

Edited April 24, 2020 by Matryoshka

[Shoeless]

Has he been sick at all? What is his pulse rate and respiratory rate?  If his respiratory rate is high and his pulse ox low, then he should call the ER and tell them what's going on. 

[ktgrok]

Make sure hands are warm, try other hand, and if that stays the same, go to ER. 

[Matryoshka]

13 minutes ago, MissLemon said:

Has he been sick at all? What is his pulse rate and respiratory rate?  If his respiratory rate is high and his pulse ox low, then he should call the ER and tell them what's going on. 

The doc I saw interviewed said they were seeing low O2 numbers in people that were otherwise fairly asymptomatic - OT they just felt 'tired' - if the numbers stay below 95+%, I'd run not walk to the ER.

[Shoeless]

1 minute ago, Matryoshka said:

The doc I saw interviewed said they were seeing low O2 numbers in people that were otherwise fairly asymptomatic - OT they just felt 'tired' - if the numbers stay below 95+%, I'd run not walk to the ER.

Here they are recommending people do not show up to the ER without doing telephone triage first.  🤷‍♂️  They don't want people showing up in a panic and accidentally exposing themselves to COVID. 

I read something where a doctor said he's been seeing patients with low pulse ox readings and elevated resp rates. The patients report feeling fine, and don't realize their respirations are up.  They don't feel out of breath because the lungs are still flexible enough to get C02 out. 

[SanDiegoMom]

I finally found my oximeter today and took my readings for the first time. However since I didn’t really know anything about it, I figured the 89 and 90 I got was a pretty good number. Just know I opened this thread and got freaked out and ran back to take it again it and it was 99.  I think maybe i was doing it wrong earlier? Or my hands were cold maybe. All that to say maybe it was just a bad reading? 

[HSMWB]

This is a really interesting thread to me.  I don’t know what it means.  
 

Here is my personal story for why it is interesting.  I have never used one in the past, have it purely since the Covid-19.  we have been ‘playing’ with it for a few weeks and always getting numbers in the 98-100 range.  This evening I ate things that I know I shouldn’t eat because they make me feel bad.  I know this, I have no medical diagnosis of anything.  But I know when I eat dairy, eat gluten, or an around cats I have a reaction.  So anyways, today my husband really wanted us to go on a family outing to get a treat at the end of the day (don’t worry we are 100% social distancing etc etc).  Anyways, we ended up at Dairy Queen and because I really wanted a treat but I didn’t want to go into a grocery store I decided to just get a treat.  So, I knew this was a bad decision, but whatever.  So later I am feeling bad (expected) and I decided to take a reading just for fun.  I got a 94.  I took it a few minutes later, got a 93.  Thought to myself that is really interesting. I am not going to do anything about it.  Other then stop eating things that make me feel bad. Don’t worry, we will go back into self isolation . . . 

[Matryoshka]

13 minutes ago, SanDiegoMom in VA said:

I finally found my oximeter today and took my readings for the first time. However since I didn’t really know anything about it, I figured the 89 and 90 I got was a pretty good number. Just know I opened this thread and got freaked out and ran back to take it again it and it was 99.  I think maybe i was doing it wrong earlier? Or my hands were cold maybe. All that to say maybe it was just a bad reading? 

Yeah, normal is 98-99%. I think some people with lung problems can have it lower, but it should be north of 95% even then, I think. If you don't have a known issue, it should certainly be up high unless there's something wrong.

I'd agree to retake it if it's just off once. Sometimes machines are flaky and give bad readings. My hr monitor I use when I'm working out works fine until it sometimes decides to take a vacation and gives me wacky numbers... 

Edited April 24, 2020 by Matryoshka

[Farrar]

I'd check it against another person to make sure the oximeter is still working fine. But assuming it is, yeah, call the doctor, stat.

[GoodGrief]

I'd question the equipment and the technique if there are not any other symptoms. Making sure his hands are warm is good advice. Try the reading on another finger. Try it on another person. Make sure there is nothing obstructing circulation.

[sassenach]

Did they change fingers and hands? Did they leave it on for a few minutes? At 89-90 he would likely be short of breath and feeling symptoms. What was the pulse reading? Over the counter pulse oximeters aren’t always the most reliable. Sometimes they take a few minutes to capture the correct reading. They’re often fussy about placement. My son has his checked several times a day and one hand always gives less reliable readings than the other. Sometimes his nurse shows me some terrible reading and I have to remind her to give the thing a minute or switch to his other hand. It’s not hospital grade. That said, if his hands are good and warm, they tried different fingers on different hands, and they gave it adequate time to capture, I would call his doctor. In the absence of any other symptoms, I still think it’s probably the machine, and I would not go to the ER. But his primary care doctor should be notified. Of course, if he is experiencing other symptoms, they should head in. 

[TravelingChris]

I get these readings when my asthma is bad.  I then treat the asthma.

[PeterPan]

9 hours ago, HSMWB said:

we ended up at Dairy Queen and because I really wanted a treat but I didn’t want to go into a grocery store I decided to just get a treat.  So, I knew this was a bad decision, but whatever.  So later I am feeling bad (expected) and I decided to take a reading just for fun.  I got a 94.  I took it a few minutes later, got a 93.  Thought to myself that is really interesting. I am not going to do anything about it.  Other then stop eating things that make me feel bad.

If you're having food allergy reactions, you would have some options. You could work on your digestion and see if that helps or consider allergy testing/treatments. But if you're beginning to have asthma with your reactions, that would be kind of scary to leave it completely unattended to. As you say, 93 feels really crappy. Fwiw, turmeric, vitamin C, etc. can help so you really might have some options. You could also consider coconut dairy products to decrease your exposure and then just have occasional cow milk.

[PeterPan]

10 hours ago, matrips said:

 It worked normally for her and the kids but he kept getting low readings.  No other symptoms. He’s been working.

That's wild. I agree with the others that if it were pneumonia or asthma he'd feel it at those numbers. I'd be assuming assymptomatic covid, which is pretty fascinating. If they didn't have the meter, he wouldn't even realize, sounds like. Might be more polite for him to wear a mask while working, but it may be too late as he's already exposed his co-workers (or they exposed him).

[Spryte]

9 hours ago, HSMWB said:

This is a really interesting thread to me.  I don’t know what it means.  
 

Here is my personal story for why it is interesting.  I have never used one in the past, have it purely since the Covid-19.  we have been ‘playing’ with it for a few weeks and always getting numbers in the 98-100 range.  This evening I ate things that I know I shouldn’t eat because they make me feel bad.  I know this, I have no medical diagnosis of anything.  But I know when I eat dairy, eat gluten, or an around cats I have a reaction.  So anyways, today my husband really wanted us to go on a family outing to get a treat at the end of the day (don’t worry we are 100% social distancing etc etc).  Anyways, we ended up at Dairy Queen and because I really wanted a treat but I didn’t want to go into a grocery store I decided to just get a treat.  So, I knew this was a bad decision, but whatever.  So later I am feeling bad (expected) and I decided to take a reading just for fun.  I got a 94.  I took it a few minutes later, got a 93.  Thought to myself that is really interesting. I am not going to do anything about it.  Other then stop eating things that make me feel bad. Don’t worry, we will go back into self isolation . . . 

Dairy, wheat (specifically, not gluten) and cats all exacerbate DS’s asthma.  He’s allergic to all three.  And his asthma is allergy induced.  I would expect low readings like that, with untreated asthma.  Have you ever been diagnosed?  Maybe call your doc and have a televisit.  She might call in an inhaler for you.  (Maybe)

OP, I would call the doc about those numbers!

[sassenach]

2 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

That's wild. I agree with the others that if it were pneumonia or asthma he'd feel it at those numbers. I'd be assuming assymptomatic covid, which is pretty fascinating. If they didn't have the meter, he wouldn't even realize, sounds like. Might be more polite for him to wear a mask while working, but it may be too late as he's already exposed his co-workers (or they exposed him).

I’m curious about this. How would someone not feel 90% o2 sat just because the cause is Covid? Low saturation is going to cause a big physiological reaction no matter what the cause. Now I can see loss of saturation as kind of a frog in a pot situation where you don’t notice the accompanying symptoms at first. But I don’t think someone would be absent of those symptoms (increased resp rate, posturing, anxiety...). 

[gardenmom5]

if he's having no other symptoms - it could still be a sign of covid.  Apparently - it's not uncommon for blood oxygen levels to drop with no "typical" symptoms.

one of the things they were demanding before releasing me from the hospital was a pulse ox of minimum of 95.  (we had to get a second pulse ox as the first one bounced all over and went down to 92.)

eta: - this was after more than a week on three different anitbiotics and four days in the hospital.  I was tried, but not nearly as tired as the first time I had pneumonia. - the shots of coumadin (hospital gives to all patients) were leaving me more exhausted than the pneumonia.

Edited April 24, 2020 by gardenmom5

[Matryoshka]

31 minutes ago, sassenach said:

I’m curious about this. How would someone not feel 90% o2 sat just because the cause is Covid? Low saturation is going to cause a big physiological reaction no matter what the cause. Now I can see loss of saturation as kind of a frog in a pot situation where you don’t notice the accompanying symptoms at first. But I don’t think someone would be absent of those symptoms (increased resp rate, posturing, anxiety...). 

Here's the interview I saw with the doctor who explained what he saw on the Covid wards.  It has the whole video plus a partial transcript.

And here's the most startling quote:

Dr. Richard Levitan: People were sick for days, and then they only came in with shortness of breath, like, the day they presented. ... And they would arrive with oxygen levels that basically were incredible to us. I mean, almost unimaginable how people could be awake and alert and have oxygen levels that are half normal. … Normally we are 94% to 100% on these devices, these pulse oximeters that measure how much oxygen we have in our blood. And people were showing up with oxygen levels of 50%. Now, this matches the level of oxygen that we've measured on the summit of Mt. Everest. And it's amazing to me that patients could be sick for days, getting sicker, not realizing it.

Edited April 24, 2020 by Matryoshka

[sassenach]

46 minutes ago, Matryoshka said:

Here's the interview I saw with the doctor who explained what he saw on the Covid wards.  It has the whole video plus a partial transcript.

And here's the most startling quote:

Dr. Richard Levitan: People were sick for days, and then they only came in with shortness of breath, like, the day they presented. ... And they would arrive with oxygen levels that basically were incredible to us. I mean, almost unimaginable how people could be awake and alert and have oxygen levels that are half normal. … Normally we are 94% to 100% on these devices, these pulse oximeters that measure how much oxygen we have in our blood. And people were showing up with oxygen levels of 50%. Now, this matches the level of oxygen that we've measured on the summit of Mt. Everest. And it's amazing to me that patients could be sick for days, getting sicker, not realizing it.

I literally do not believe that. They would be so acidodic that the enzymes in their body would denature. Maybe he was talking about PaO2? even that is hard to wrap my brain around.

Thanks for sharing, though. Definitely something I'll be looking into more!

[prairiewindmomma]

If your baseline normal is low 90s, you acclimate. In the last few months on my dd’s life, that was her normal. Cellular damage starts to happen once you push into the 80s, but low 90s can be normal for those with medical issues.

Personally, I feel it when I hit the low 90s, but my baseline normal is 99.

Those who have covid are having their surfactant cells affected. Because they are still able to exhale out the carbon dioxide, they don’t feel the desat. They just aren’t carrying as much oxygen as usual....

[Matryoshka]

31 minutes ago, sassenach said:

I literally do not believe that. They would be so acidodic that the enzymes in their body would denature. Maybe he was talking about PaO2? even that is hard to wrap my brain around.

Thanks for sharing, though. Definitely something I'll be looking into more!

They couldn't believe it either.  Watch the video.  He agrees that these people should be comatose with those levels...  the people at the top of Everest he's comparing their levels to literally die without supplemental oxygen at those levels...  And this is why they're saying check your O2 levels with an oxymeter, because this virus is behaving completely differently than other things that cause low O2...

I have read some reports that suggest that this virus may be affecting the blood transport of oxygen, rather than attacking the lungs directly.   And whether that's true or not, I also wonder if the sustained low oxygen levels before anyone realizes it's going on could be part of the reason they're seeing systemic organ damage that lingers on after the virus clears...

[ktgrok]

2 hours ago, PeterPan said:

That's wild. I agree with the others that if it were pneumonia or asthma he'd feel it at those numbers. I'd be assuming assymptomatic covid, which is pretty fascinating. If they didn't have the meter, he wouldn't even realize, sounds like. Might be more polite for him to wear a mask while working, but it may be too late as he's already exposed his co-workers (or they exposed him).

Well if you are assuming Covid, he needs to self isolate, not consider wether or not to wear a mask. 

2 hours ago, sassenach said:

I’m curious about this. How would someone not feel 90% o2 sat just because the cause is Covid? Low saturation is going to cause a big physiological reaction no matter what the cause. Now I can see loss of saturation as kind of a frog in a pot situation where you don’t notice the accompanying symptoms at first. But I don’t think someone would be absent of those symptoms (increased resp rate, posturing, anxiety...). 

It seems that it confuses the body because in the initial stages the type of lung damage lowers oxygen, but the body is still able to get rid of carbon dioxide, and it is high CO2 that triggers most of the symptoms of shortness of breath, etc. 

[MEmama]

So we just took our numbers. 98 for me, 96 for DH and 80 for DS. DS has asthma and forgot to take his inhaler this morning. Should I be concerned? Should he take his emergency inhaler now since it’s too late for his twice a day inhaler? 

[Acadie]

5 minutes ago, Ktgrok said:

It seems that it confuses the body because in the initial stages the type of lung damage lowers oxygen, but the body is still able to get rid of carbon dioxide, and it is high CO2 that triggers most of the symptoms of shortness of breath, etc. 

 

This is my understanding, too. Normally with low O2 sats people simulaneously experience a buildup of CO2, and that's what causes us to feel short of breath. But with covid patients O2 levels are falling and their lungs can still expel CO2, so they aren't feeling it until much later. Explanation in NYT below--

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/20/opinion/coronavirus-testing-pneumonia.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

The coronavirus attacks lung cells that make surfactant. This substance helps the air sacs in the lungs stay open between breaths and is critical to normal lung function. As the inflammation from Covid pneumonia starts, it causes the air sacs to collapse, and oxygen levels fall. Yet the lungs initially remain “compliant,” not yet stiff or heavy with fluid. This means patients can still expel carbon dioxide — and without a buildup of carbon dioxide, patients do not feel short of breath.

Patients compensate for the low oxygen in their blood by breathing faster and deeper — and this happens without their realizing it. This silent hypoxia, and the patient’s physiological response to it, causes even more inflammation and more air sacs to collapse, and the pneumonia worsens until oxygen levels plummet. In effect, patients are injuring their own lungs by breathing harder and harder. Twenty percent of Covid pneumonia patients then go on to a second and deadlier phase of lung injury. Fluid builds up and the lungs become stiff, carbon dioxide rises, and patients develop acute respiratory failure.

[Matryoshka]

7 minutes ago, MEmama said:

So we just took our numbers. 98 for me, 96 for DH and 80 for DS. DS has asthma and forgot to take his inhaler this morning. Should I be concerned? Should he take his emergency inhaler now since it’s too late for his twice a day inhaler? 

My understanding with asthma is that if you have wheezing or low oxygen, you take the inhaler immediately, and only worry if the wheezing doesn't go away or the O2 levels don't rise.  If the rescue inhaler doesn't fix the problem, call the doctor for further advice.

[ktgrok]

12 minutes ago, MEmama said:

So we just took our numbers. 98 for me, 96 for DH and 80 for DS. DS has asthma and forgot to take his inhaler this morning. Should I be concerned? Should he take his emergency inhaler now since it’s too late for his twice a day inhaler? 

 

3 minutes ago, Matryoshka said:

My understanding with asthma is that if you have wheezing or low oxygen, you take the inhaler immediately, and only worry if the wheezing doesn't go away or the O2 levels don't rise.  If the rescue inhaler doesn't fix the problem, call the doctor for further advice.

All this. Also, on kids it can be a bit harder to get an accurate reading. Try the thumb instead of the finger, and leave it on for several minutes. 

[rebcoola]

My daughter has been sick with possible covid for awhile we have a pulse ox for my husband's asthma.  On Saturday we took hers because she looked off it was 92 it has ranged from 90-94 for days.  She has not once complained of shortness of breath.  It was the same at doctor's appointment and everyone else is getting normal readings so I'm confident she really has been that low.  I don't know how it's possible but it's true.

[matrips]

13 hours ago, MissLemon said:

Has he been sick at all? What is his pulse rate and respiratory rate?  If his respiratory rate is high and his pulse ox low, then he should call the ER and tell them what's going on. 

His pulse rate was 89 at the time. I don’t think his respiratory rate was measured.  He wasn’t feeling sick or weird or anything.  This morning she said his pulse ox was 94, so much better but still on the lower side.

She did call their doctor and he said to watch the oxygen levels for the next few days.  If it goes back to 89/90 then go to urgent care.  They’re also trying to find a test.  One of her major concerns is also that they have a critical immunodeficiency son at home. 

Edited April 24, 2020 by matrips

[Arcadia]

16 minutes ago, MEmama said:

So we just took our numbers. 98 for me, 96 for DH and 80 for DS. DS has asthma and forgot to take his inhaler this morning. Should I be concerned? Should he take his emergency inhaler now since it’s too late for his twice a day inhaler? 

DS14’s reading was low 90s when he first tried after sitting still for hours. Then he moved around and the readings went into the 95 to 99 range. We also find the pointer finger the easiest to take a reading. 

Maybe get your son to just walk around the house then take another reading. 

[PeterPan]

55 minutes ago, MEmama said:

So we just took our numbers. 98 for me, 96 for DH and 80 for DS. DS has asthma and forgot to take his inhaler this morning. Should I be concerned? Should he take his emergency inhaler now since it’s too late for his twice a day inhaler? 

The more concerning thing is that HE doesn't feel his symptoms enough to track what's going on there. He might do well to get a peak flow meter as well and start making data (O2, peak flow, symptoms, what meds he has used, etc.) so he can see the patterns and become more self-aware. Making data helped me *decrease* the amount of meds I needed by targeting them better, knowing when I needed them and when I didn't. I also get big mileage from C and a really strong turmeric.

 

[ktgrok]

20 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

The more concerning thing is that HE doesn't feel his symptoms enough to track what's going on there. He might do well to get a peak flow meter as well and start making data (O2, peak flow, symptoms, what meds he has used, etc.) so he can see the patterns and become more self-aware. Making data helped me *decrease* the amount of meds I needed by targeting them better, knowing when I needed them and when I didn't. I also get big mileage from C and a really strong turmeric.

 

Good point. Anyone with asthma should be tracking peak flow. Asthma is SO much easier to treat when you hit it right when it starts, which yes, for most asthmatics is well before they actually notice it. And even if they DO notice early symptoms, it is hard to get a doctor to treat it seriously without data. I know I had multiple people in my life blow off me trying to explain verbally what a "tight" chest felt like, because I couldn't prove it. They could measure my flow then, but without a baseline, that wasn't helpful until it was seriously tanked. (same goes for any other inflammation. once you let things get into that cycle it takes more meds, for longer, to get half the treatment effect. Be that arthritis, sinuses, whatever)

[gardenmom5]

3 hours ago, sassenach said:

I literally do not believe that. They would be so acidodic that the enzymes in their body would denature. Maybe he was talking about PaO2? even that is hard to wrap my brain around.

Thanks for sharing, though. Definitely something I'll be looking into more!

dh grew up with a guy who climbed Everest without oxygen. (not his first attempt).   . . . sports med guys have liked studying him because even when exercising really hard - his heart rate was about 60.     

[MEmama]

1 hour ago, Arcadia said:

DS14’s reading was low 90s when he first tried after sitting still for hours. Then he moved around and the readings went into the 95 to 99 range. We also find the pointer finger the easiest to take a reading. 

Maybe get your son to just walk around the house then take another reading. 

That makes sense. Apparently it was much higher earlier this morning. He had been sitting doing homework for hours before taking it again. I’ll have him move around soon and try again. 

[prairiewindmomma]

1 hour ago, MEmama said:

So we just took our numbers. 98 for me, 96 for DH and 80 for DS. DS has asthma and forgot to take his inhaler this morning. Should I be concerned? Should he take his emergency inhaler now since it’s too late for his twice a day inhaler? 

80 is really not good. I would get him up and moving for a few minutes, taking deep breaths, and recheck. If it isn’t up around 95+, give albuterol and wait 15 minutes and recheck.
 

He shouldn’t be falling to 80 just by sitting still. Two of my kids show hypoxic signs like bluish skin tone and fuzzy thinking at 80.

 

[prairiewindmomma]

I should add, our asthma action plan is that if someone falls below 90 and doesn’t come up within a few minutes, we go to urgent care or ER....in some states we have lived in, we had a plan where I called ahead to the hospital so they knew we were coming in and didn’t have to wait for the triage lady. 

[gardenmom5]

37 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

The more concerning thing is that HE doesn't feel his symptoms enough to track what's going on there. He might do well to get a peak flow meter as well and start making data (O2, peak flow, symptoms, what meds he has used, etc.) so he can see the patterns and become more self-aware. Making data helped me *decrease* the amount of meds I needed by targeting them better, knowing when I needed them and when I didn't. I also get big mileage from C and a really strong turmeric.

 

they keep releasing more 'innocuous' symptoms that seem completely unrelated.   e.g. loss of smell, testicular pain in men, pink eye, 

[PeterPan]

2 hours ago, MEmama said:

That makes sense. Apparently it was much higher earlier this morning. He had been sitting doing homework for hours before taking it again. I’ll have him move around soon and try again. 

Not meaning to be pushy, but *he* should see what changes his numbers. If he's slouching breathing in a really shallow stressed way, etc., yes that will lower his numbers. So he's decreasing oxygen to his brain in the name of studying, which is sort of counterproductive. He can make his numbers go up in a hot flash if he learns how to breath and what he's doing that is tanking them. It's not just get up and move. He can literally just breathe differently and they'll go up. 

So he needs to correlate what numbers mean good productive school work, happy, empowered brain, and what numbers mean sluggish tired brain, and he needs to learn what he can do to get them there. Not just asthma meds or something dramatic like a treadmill. Literally just stopping to BREATHE can change his numbers.

[PeterPan]

2 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

80 is really not good. I would get him up and moving for a few minutes, taking deep breaths, and recheck. If it isn’t up around 95+, give albuterol and wait 15 minutes and recheck.
 

He shouldn’t be falling to 80 just by sitting still. Two of my kids show hypoxic signs like bluish skin tone and fuzzy thinking at 80.

 

Some people are so used to not feeling well that they don't realize how much better they could feel. He has to work with the meter, try things, figure it out for himself.

[ktgrok]

3 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

80 is really not good. I would get him up and moving for a few minutes, taking deep breaths, and recheck. If it isn’t up around 95+, give albuterol and wait 15 minutes and recheck.
 

He shouldn’t be falling to 80 just by sitting still. Two of my kids show hypoxic signs like bluish skin tone and fuzzy thinking at 80.

 

For context, my mother with serious COPD and missing 1 lobe of her lung has pulse ox readings around 93. Below that, in a kid? That's not good. 

3 hours ago, gardenmom5 said:

they keep releasing more 'innocuous' symptoms that seem completely unrelated.   e.g. loss of smell, testicular pain in men, pink eye, 

I was freaking out the other day, when I woke up with mucous filling my eye, red eye, etc. turns out I had a dog whisker in my eye. How on earth that got in there IN MY SLEEP I don't know, lol. But for a few minutes I was thinking some not nice things about the woman who hacked up a lung in Walmart right next to me the other day!

1 hour ago, PeterPan said:

Some people are so used to not feeling well that they don't realize how much better they could feel. He has to work with the meter, try things, figure it out for himself.

This is true. My asthma hasn't been much of an issue in years, but I do tend toward anemia, and my mom usually notices my symptoms before I do - over the phone no less! She can pick up on my increased respiration rate, which I don't even notice. 

[MEmama]

3 hours ago, prairiewindmomma said:

80 is really not good. I would get him up and moving for a few minutes, taking deep breaths, and recheck. If it isn’t up around 95+, give albuterol and wait 15 minutes and recheck.
 

He shouldn’t be falling to 80 just by sitting still. Two of my kids show hypoxic signs like bluish skin tone and fuzzy thinking at 80.

 

In that case, he probably just did it wrong. I didn’t know when I posted that earlier  in the morning it was 98%. 

[prairiewindmomma]

12 minutes ago, MEmama said:

In that case, he probably just did it wrong. I didn’t know when I posted that earlier  in the morning it was 98%. 

Does he have really dark skin or fingernail polish on? I'm not sure what else would trigger a reading, but a false low one....

[MEmama]

34 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Does he have really dark skin or fingernail polish on? I'm not sure what else would trigger a reading, but a false low one....

No, neither. Most likely just not paying attention. 🙄