Oxygen

[JohnB]

More good suggestions to help would be:

1. Buy a pulse oximeter (or more than one like I have in case you drop one, battery issue etc)
2. Go flying with your pulse oximeter on continuously at different altitudes on an average day, (start low, you might be surprised at how fast your readings change)  and climb to progressively higher altitudes for at least 4-5 minutes at each altitude, longer if you can, (takes a while to equilibrate) up to 10,000 or whatever altitude your oxygen saturation drops to 90%. That altitude will be YOUR personal 90% saturation altitude at which you should probably be wearing oxygen at or above for the reasons mentioned earlier and by others. 

[KLRDMD]

1 hour ago, Bob_Belville said:

I use a finger O2 pulse meter regularly.

You want a pulse oximeter, not a pulse meter. They aren't the same. A pulse meter only gives you pulse rate, and I'm not sure if they're even made any longer. A pulse oximeter gives you pulse rate and oxygen saturation.

[Bob_Belville]

15 minutes ago, KLRDMD said:

You want a pulse oximeter, not a pulse meter. They aren't the same. A pulse meter only gives you pulse rate, and I'm not sure if they're even made any longer. A pulse oximeter gives you pulse rate and oxygen saturation.

Please read more carefully. I referred to a O2 pulse meter. Oxygen and pulse. No one cares much about pulse rate but the meter displays both. My BP cuffs also record pulse rate but that's not what I use them for. Geez.

[N201MKTurbo]

FWIW,

The pulse oxymeter needs to know the pulse to calculate the oxygen saturation. So you get pulse for free.

it uses a formula that compares the IR vs red LED light transmission synced with the peaks and valleys of blood flow. The difference in the ratio of IR to visible transmission at the different blood flows directly correlate to SpO2.

[cnoe]

FWIW,
The pulse oxymeter needs to know the pulse to calculate the oxygen saturation. So you get pulse for free.
it uses a formula that compares the IR vs red LED light transmission synced with the peaks and valleys of blood flow. The difference in the ratio of IR to visible transmission at the different blood flows directly correlate to SpO2.

Are you SURE that's how it works? If I recall correctly in the movie Fantastic Voyage oxygen levels were visually observed in the bloodstream from the port-holes of their submarine by miniaturized scientists (including Raquel Welch) and the tallies were radioed back to the full-size doctors waiting outside the body. I'd take Raquel's word over some IR transmission ratio mumbo-jumbo any day!




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[N201MKTurbo]

She has maintained her looks much better than Kelly McGillis!

[Bob_Belville]

Sophia is 82. I do not suppose this pic is very old.

[211º]

Bumping an old post - I found that I went through a denial phase with my pulse oximeter.  I remember putting it on at 8,000 feet on a bright sunny day and it reading below 90% and thinking. "It must be broken or the sun must be affecting the reading and its light."  After that I started carrying a boost can.  The engineer in me noted that it took about 20 seconds for a hit of O2 to move through my lungs to my bloodstream to my finger.

After going through several boost cans, I used @Niko182's link here to move from boost cans to a system.

I'm looking forward to arriving after a long flight feeling normal.

I'll try to update this after a month of use.

[A64Pilot]

Honestly if your getting hypoxic at 8,000 ft, you should see a Dr. I’m not slamming you but that’s not normal. People do differ of course, but 8,000 is awful low.

‘Military did a lot of studies of course and a young, healthy person begins to lose their night vision at 6,000 ft, so night you should be on O2 earlier than in the day time.

Of course even with the studies, they still didn’t provide us with O2, I wonder if those deployed to Afghanistan had O2 on board?

[pkofman]

Well I fly by the book . The AIM in canada is pretty clear on the use of o2. I have o2 on board so why not use it and I do carry an oximeter. Also no big deal to fly with o2 at night and why take any additional risk , Night Ifr already has enough special considerations that can make life interesting.. O2 is an easy precautionary measure

[Will.iam]

On 3/24/2021 at 6:03 AM, 211º said:

Bumping an old post - I found that I went through a denial phase with my pulse oximeter.  I remember putting it on at 8,000 feet on a bright sunny day and it reading below 90% and thinking. "It must be broken or the sun must be affecting the reading and its light."  After that I started carrying a boost can.  The engineer in me noted that it took about 20 seconds for a hit of O2 to move through my lungs to my bloodstream to my finger.

After going through several boost cans, I used @Niko182's link here to move from boost cans to a system.

I'm looking forward to arriving after a long flight feeling normal.

I'll try to update this after a month of use.

If you are slumped and taking shallow breaths the bottom part of your lungs are not getting enough exchange of air. If you sit up and take deep breaths instead of shallow ones it will improve your O2. I’ve increased mine by more than 8 points before just by doing that alone.