John brought home the gadget for the Oximetry study last night. The limited instructions were from my phone call with the agency said: “Push the big blue button to turn it on. Don’t touch the button again until morning, then push it again to turn it off. You can’t push it any other time.” Evidently any other off and on reset it.

We set it up complete with a big band aid holding the cord on to my wrist, so it wouldn’t get lost if the clip came off my finger. But the unit wasn’t very big and the cord wasn’t very long. I couldn’t put it beside the bed. It had a pressure sensitive on off switch, so under the pillow was out. I ended up tucking it above the pillow, with just enough cord to put my hand at chest level.

So when I rolled over at night, I grabbed for the unit to make sure it didn’t fall off the bed. That worked twice. The third time I grabbed too late and it hit the floor, unplugged, and shut itself off. Three hours of sleep recorded, with extra interruptions. Not the “at least four hours” they wanted. Not the part of the night that my sleep is the worst. And no way to find out whether there was any option to keep the data and restart it.

Today John took it back and found out that I’d been given the wrong instructions. It can actually record for up to three days, with turn off’s and on’s in between. It just can’t be off and on a lot quickly, because that will generate errors. It would have helped a lot if they’d told us both that in the first place.

It would also have helped if it were set up so that it could be set off the bed, or somehow attached to something more sturdy than it’s connecting cord. Maybe we can tie it to a pillow case tonight or something, I don’t know. With luck tonight we can rig it so it gets a full night of recording at least.

Filed under: life, fibromyalgia