Hi! This is a short thread about a device called a pulse oximeter, a device you're familiar with, even if you don't recognize it by name. My mom spent almost a week in the ICU with coronavirus, and now she is home recovering. This is how a pulse oximeter helped save her life.

By late March, my parents and grandfather had all tested positive for coronavirus, and my brother and I believe we had milder cases. My mom’s sickness was by far the worst. She’s predisposed to bronchitis, and it was hard to gauge whether she needed to be hospitalized.

If you’ve ever tried describing an illness qualitatively, over the phone, to a new doctor, you already know that it’s hard to convey the urgency of what you’re experiencing. We ran into this problem. When is a bad cough just a bad cough? What level of care did my mom need?

After several days, a friend urged us to get a pulse oximeter. Even if you don’t recognize the name, you know what it is: It’s the small rubber clamp put on your finger when you’re in the hospital or get your blood pressure taken. Completely non-invasive. Looks like this.

We got ours from a Dallas medical supply store, but they’re pretty easy to find. Prices range from $20 to $200. The first one we could get our hands on cost about $110, and it was hospital quality. It gives you instant data on your pulse, and, crucially, your blood oxygen level.

At this point, my mom had been severely ill for more than a week. She couldn’t talk — she could barely move. But at this point, things didn’t seem to be getting worse. And at NO POINT did any of the doctors who spoke with us suggest that we might benefit from quantifiable data.

But on the outright urging of my epidemiologist friend, we got that pulse oximeter. Having data changed everything, because we started taking my mom’s blood oxygen level hourly. The level wasn't good, but it was stable. Until it wasn’t.

We got the pulse oximeter on a Thursday, and my mom seemed unchanged (just very, very ill) for two days. There were *no serious external changes* that we could observe. But then her levels plummeted. 90. 89. 88. And then to the mid- and low-80s. (This can be fatal.)

Within an hour of her blood oxygen level plummeting, my mom was admitted to the ICU. She was minutes away from needing a ventilator. The nurse’s first questions were about her living will. But she got oxygen, immediately. And now she’s home.

I would be remiss if I didn’t recognize that my mom’s whiteness, and a healthcare system that treats white people with better care, was a major determining factor in this story. Gary Fowler’s oxygen levels plummeted, too. Three hospitals turned him away: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2020/04/19/coronavirus-racial-disparity-denied-tests-hospitalization/2981800001/

We got extraordinarily lucky. The quality of her medical care and my family's ability to afford it all made a huge difference; no two courses of infection are the same. But without the pulse oximeter, we wouldn't have known that her blood oxygen level had plummeted.

It's been an emotionally and physically exhausting month. We’re all trying our best. My grandpa, who also got severely ill, didn’t need a pulse oximeter at all. His symptoms were not primarily bronchial. I don’t think every household or patient needs this.

But for the cost of $110, we got hard data that showed us what our untrained eyes could not see. Having that data was a lifesaver. It helped us get taken more seriously. If you’re struggling with qualitative descriptions, having that quantitative information could be helpful.

That’s all I got on this thread. I’m not a doctor, just an extraordinarily lucky person with a brilliant friend (shoutout to Zoe, who isn't on twitter). Happy to answer questions. Donate to a local food bank or a mutual aid organization if you can. Thanks for all the support.