Harry Bloomfield wrote:
Paul pretended :
The screen output on mine looks like this. And I do
like the waveform feature, because you can see
a correspondence between the waveform, and when
you have a "fluttery feeling" in the chest.

Mine shows a tiny crude cardio, but I don't know whether it is a genuine
cardio or synthesised. In interviews with the docs, they have asked me
if I ever notice heart palpitations - not really knowing what one should
feel like, all I can reply is that I have absolutely no idea.

The only times I notice my heartbeat is when I feel my wrist or temple
etc. for it, or sometimes can audibly hear the beat in my ears. I asked,
and was told that is quite normal.

What the graph represents, is a measure of blood flow. Which
is driven by pressure. This makes the graph, even though of
blood flow, a measure of pressure too. Sometimes you can
notice a correspondence between what the graph shows and
how you're feeling - without using your separate blood
pressure meter. Some of the ripples in the graph would
represent turbulence in your circulatory system.

It suggests the pulseOX might have one LED light source,
but on the receiving side has a receiver array, and that's
how (like a computer mouse), it can "see" blood flow.
By comparing what each pixel sees.

As a practical example, normally my sitting heart rate
might be 60 BPM. Sometimes when I use the blood pressure
machine, it happily reports "your BPM is 180". And of course
I'm not running a marathon, so that's not possible. The reading
would always be exactly 3X the correct value.

When I fire up the PulseOX and look, there are three peaks
on the waveform. And that clever blood pressure machine
has taken the first derivative of the waveform and spotted
the blips in its math, and counts the three peaks in its
BPM count.

So at least now I know where the blood pressure machine
erroneous readings come from. There is something real
and physical that is happening, at the time. And I
probably don't feel "100% correct" at the time.

I've never had a chance to do a PulseOX when the angina
shows up. It feels like an electric shock, at the pulse
rate, and there's one slight incline I go up when out
for a walk, where it might show up. In terms of intensity,
all I can say is "you can't miss it". It's that annoying.

My favorite quote from the doctor is

"you could drop dead you know"

The doctor is great at the double entendre. I've not
been told what the symptoms would be like, leading
up to "dropping dead". So I can be wearing the
right hat at the time.

Paul