So, here's a perplexer or maybe it won't be:

I dislocated my knee and chipped the tibia several weeks ago. Since then I've been in physical therapy for 3 times a week. Everything was just peachy when they just had me laying on the table doing strengthening exercises. Everything went down in a hurry when they decided it would be fun to put me on the exercise bike. 02 Sats dropped to 91%, shot up to 95% when I slowed down or stopped, farther to 98% and really stayed there while I continued to try to bike (on hills, mind you). My heart rate peaked at 192...wasn't that fun!! No arrythmias to my knowledge...because I didn't wind up in the floor. Could orthostatic hypotension/MVP/NCS push my O2 saturations that low??? It freaked me out enough to schedule a cardiologist appt., but they'll just want to do a dumb stress echo which will promptly put me in bed for three weeks...sorry I've always been a little skeptic. I'm good at it

Same happened with my BP during stress testing - I have to check the 02 - can't remember off hand.

Donna

I'm reading this and wondering.

What are norms for O2 during excercise? I'd think most folks would have something of a drop. I've had 95% readings sitting in the docs office for an appt--with no excercise--once as low as 92%--and no one seemed to get worried about it.

Four days after I had my hysto. I ended up in the E.R. with an oxygen level of 90%!!

After given oxygen for a few hours it went back up to a "normal range" -- thank goodness!!

Since this came up I looked it up.
Here's what I found.
Oxygen Saturation Norms

Measurement Critical Notes Spo2 > 95% N Normal healthy individual Spo2 91% - 95% N Clinically acceptable, but low. Patient may be a smoker, or be unhealthy. Spo2 70% - 90% Y Hypoxemia. Unhealthy and unsafe level. Spo2 < 70% Y Extreme lack of oxygen, ischemic diseases may occur. The OctiveTech 300-series of Oximeters is not calibrated to detect readings lower than 70%.

If your O2 sat is lower that 90, Medicare requires that you go by ambulance to the hosp--experience speaking. Mine just drops for who knows what reason. As I sit here I have a CPAP machine beside my bed, a porta potty because it is not safe for me to walk all the way through the house to the bathroom at night--two trips to the hospital there, I am on a nasal o2 canula, have an oxigenator, have my own astha nebulizer(my o2 drops so low so quick, I can't put it together myself when an attack hits), several small o2 tanks for road travel, a big one for power outages, and that is all I can think of at the moment. The last time I ended up in the hosp, I arrived at the drs office with 83 o2 and had been totally out of it unable to walk, and when I hit 80, they freaked out. 3 days in the heart unit....oh yes I also have an oxigenator which gives me within a point or two of my levels. Watch it. It kills brain cells when it drops.