TOMORROW IS THE BIG DAY!!!

Well, that day is ALMOST HERE! That wonderful day when  I get to play that Minuet I've composed for  Aaron.   I'm so excited.  Tomorrow, Heather and I will be going up to Cundiff's Music store and I'll be doing this at the Grand Piano. They have an AWESOME keyboard with a truly realistic sounding Harpsichord Mode, but I've decided that due to the nature of this Piece I want it to be conducted on a Grandpiano  for the video.  I'm beyond excited because Aaron has truly touched my heart and being that Him and his  family are musical, I wanted to write this Little Minuet  Especially for Aaron. I plan on Dressing very very nicely as If I were going to Church or somebody's special event, because this is Aaron's Piece I've composed especially for him. I'm just so happy that the Lord Helped me write this piece and now I get to play it for Aaron on YouTube!

In other news I've decided that when I see my Pulmonologist This April  I'm going to talk to him about  Writing a script for a pulse ox. The reason why? Well, I have my own Besdise monitor as you know, but being that It's an ICU monitor, It does not have batteries, although now days most of these ICu monitors dohave batteries now days. I'm going to be talking to him about a pulse ox so that I can have a monitor to monitor my SpO2 continuously when I'm away from the bed like when I'm at the computer or at the piano. Being that I forget to breathe, I could desat at anytime, and have had this happen, if I'm actually off the vent at all, and sometimes ON THE VENT, but if I had  a pulse ox that was portable,  and that could plug in, I could move around freely with continuous monitoring. With my Central Apneas, or as I often refer to them as, CENTRALS, I really need CO2 monitoring as well and that's becoming commonly used in home ventilated patients, however I doubt if my DME actually has that type of equipment.

Now I have a huge library of pulse oximeters that I am familiar with and that I love, and so my preferred pulse oximeters are going to be listed below and the reasons why I would prefer them vs why I might not, so  here we go.

The TOP of the list?

The Masimo Radical 8 pulse oximeter: This Pulse ox  is  the exact type Aaron uses. Yeah, He has a Radical 8 pulse ox! This pulse oximeter is loaded with functions including an  easy to read LED Display, and very high sensitivity, and it also has ways to lock the monitor, although, why would I need to lock it since I'm the only one who's really going to be touching it! I like this oximeter because as many of you parents and caregivers of trach and vent patients already know, Masimo is a HUGE company in pulse oximetry and C.O. monitoring! They have an Iphone App that allows for SpO2 monitoring with the same technology that is in their pulse oximeters, and not only that, can you believe it's in an Iphone? WOW! But Masimo is very big in monitoring. This pulse oximeter that hits the top on my list is special being that It's the kind Aaron has.

Next on the Menu, or I'd rather say Minuet!! LOL

The G.E. Ohmeda TruSat 3500 Pulse Oximeter: This pulse oximeter has a bright LCD display with black numbers that are on a yellow/orange backlit background, and It has loads of features such as Data Recording, ability to Turn off the Backlight display if for some reason somebody wanted it off, It's got alarms, QRS beep  as well as pitch Variability, but Just like the Masimo Oximeters, this thing has the Perfusion Index! What's the Perfusion Index? The Perfusion Index is a numeric value that indicates how strong a signal is being obtained, and can be useful in determination of the blood flow to a patient's extrimity, as well as just finding which probe placement sight is going to be your best option for the patient that you are monitoring. The Higher the Perfusion Index, the better. Why do I like this oximeter? I've actually used one of these years ago when somebody had one and hardly ever used it lke they were really suppose to.  But I liked it because It was small, light weight, and It's soft backlight was very comforting at night. It eventually got picked up by the DME company if you're wondering what happened to it.

Next on the Minuet?

The Nellcor NBP-290 pulse oximeter: I like this oximeter because well Nellcor is another big pulse oximeter company and  their series of oximeters are also very reliable and this oximeter  is one of my favorites because of the three alarm priorities.

It has Low, Medium, and High Priority alarms, and these are indicated by different pitch alarm signals as well as the frequency of the signals. This oximeter  has a green LED display screen that becomes red when an alarm is sounding.

For example, if somebody is desatting, the green SO2 Numeric is going to become red, and will flash. This will be accompanied by a sounding alarm. The reasons I really would rather this pulse ox be what I get if I have any of preventing it is because I can see LCD displays better, and there's no way to adjust the brightness on the NPB-290 oximeter like there is on the Masimo Radical 8 and  also It doesn't have a Perfusion Index numeric like the other two oximeters that were mentioned above actually do!

Next on the Minuet?

Well this will list three oximeters in one listing, because they look the same and have some of the same functions.

The Nellcor NPB-395, NPB-595, and NPB-600 oximeters!

If you had a loved one on a pulse oximeter and  you remember white numbers on a bright blue background, chances are  they were on one of these things. These are awesome oximeters. They are LCD displays, they have very reliable monitoring and not only that, but these oximeters have an  actual Waveform APleth. What do I mean by that? Well take for example the Ohmeda TruSat oximeter which has a bar on the right side of the screen to the right of everything else. This bar moves up and down to the person's pulse rate and indicate the signal quality. If a patient is poorly perfusing or the oximeter probe is faulty, or just not on there good, or if the patient's hands/feet are cold, you are going to get a weak or absent signal. What does a weak signal look like on a bar signal indicator? It barely moves, at all, if it even does.

With the waveform Pleth signal you can actually see a waveform going across the screen and depending on how acceptable or unacceptable that signal is will depend on how much of a wave pattern that you are going to get.   I love this about these three oximeters, and my HP Viridia ICU monitor actually has one of these PLETH abilities on it, and oh yeah, It's got a perfusion Index.

The three oximeters we're discussing do nothave the Perfusion Index but Hey, You don't absolutely have to have one, and you really don't need one if you have a waveform PLETH capable oximeter.

OK, Next On the Minuet:

The Masimo Radical 7 Pulse Ox: This thing is truly Loaded. You're not really going to find one of these in home care that often, however, it does happen. Not only could I connect this to my ICU monitor, but this thing has  a wonderful LCD backlight that's colored, and some I believe have the ability to change the display's color. This thing has the Waveform PLETH, It has  Perfusion Index, It has the ability to take it off It's charging dock if for example I wanted to take  it from the computer to the Piano, I could simply remove it from It's docking station, and Literally sit it on top of the piano whilst I'm playing something by one of my favorite composers, or maybe one of the Pieces that I have composed by myself. But this oximeter can also be set to a No baccklight mode if for some reason somebody wanted to do that, and the alarms can be completely turned off for example during Polysomnography, when You really don't want alarms getting in the way when You're  observing somebody sleeping.

Reasons I might not want this oximeter? Well I really don't see any that I could even list here because this oximeter is truly a spectacular oximeter, but I'm still choosing the Masimo Radical 8 if I get that and the Masimo Radical 7 as my options. I know, I'm very picky, and I'll admit that, but hey, If I get a choice between which oximeter I'm going to be getting, and I will make sure I do get a choice,  and if the Masimo Radical 8 is in that Menu, or as I'd say, MINUET of choices, I'm going with  that RADICAL 8. LOL OK Next Oximeter!

The Nonin 9600  Pulse Oximeter: Well this one's also an awesome oximeter. It's got wonderful data reliability, It's got various alarm priorities, It's got LED brightness settings and not only that, this thing like the Masimo Radical 7 could be connected to my ICU monitor if I had the correct cables. It's got a nice Alarm LED so the colors of the LED indicate the alarm's priority,  but also like the NPB-290 Oximeter It's LED numerics become RED if there's a parameter that goes out of the SET alarm limits.

Well there are  Plenty of other oximeters in  the Menu, or MINUET that I'm aware of, but I feel I've droned on long enough and you all get the picture of  what I'm wanting, and why.

Essentially, I need an Oximeter with Alarms, obviously, one that's easy to see, and  that's portable and easy to move around with. I also want the Soft Neonatal wrap sensors because I get a better reading when the oximeter is on my foot than my finger. It's ok if I'm just being monitored for a few minutes, but continuously, I'm going to want the monitor on my foot which is where I like to put the sensor for my ICU monitor's  Pulse Ox at. It's much more comfortable, and I sleep with my hands near my face at night so that LED light from the oximeter won't be right near my eye, and also when I sleep I like to hold onto my ventilator circuit.

Well thank youfor  reading or listening to another  blog post, and I'm indescribably excited about the upcoming Performance  of "Aaron's Minuet!"

I'm VERY VERY excited about this!!

Thank you, and may God Bless You, and Keep you.

REMEMBER, ONLY HE, can Love You PERFECTLY!!