Educate me on home O2 oxymeters

[S.L. Ping Beauty]

In addition to my PAP therapy,  I am also on oxygen.   My doctor has prescribed a concentrator that I use every night because of low O2... probaly due to the low oxygen at the altitude in which I live.

I am thinking of purchasing a home 02 oxymeter for self monitoring.  I see that Amazon has sever basic ones in the $20+/- range that seem to be very similar to the type that is used in a doctors office to check o2 along with other vitals.  I am thinking that this is what I want.  I also see some in the $90 range that have downloadable software features.  Others have BlueTooth capabilities.  

Are there perhaps other features of which might be useful of which I am not aware that should be considered?

Any advice and comments are appreciated.

[Walla Walla]

You want a recording oximeter to track your O2 at night. The $20 oximeters are good for daytime use.

[ajack]

there are 2 main types, a unit that goes on your finger. I've seen people say the finger one feels tight.
The other is a unit that goes on your wrist, with a rubber thing that goers on your finger. I find the cms50f comfortable. There are ones with more functions
In any case when you wake up, change finger.

[S.L. Ping Beauty]

Thanks....

ajack- I see the cms50f, it is one of the many I am considering.  Is it functional for taking an instantaneous reading similar to the $20 models?  (I assume it does.)

It is described as having software with download cable.  I guess that means that I can wear it throughout the night and then transfer data to my computer similarly to the very expensive, high-tech ones that I have rented from my DME provider?

Until I get a new computer I am running Vista OS... do you know if the software is compatible with it

[Walla Walla]

It will work with any windows OS including Vista. Also you can take real time readings with it without having to record.

[ajack]

vista is fine, I have the older white one as well. They both record for the night. The new blue v3.9 version will upload to sleepyhead okay SOME TIMES, hasn't been fully loaded for sleepyhead and there are a couple of quirks. I'm going the use the delete recording function in the software next time and see if that helps. The program that comes with it works fine. For under $100 and as low as $60. It shows the desaturations. I'm very happy with it. For safety I think they set the calibration on the low side. Both mine read a bit low. the specs are +/-2%, I'd go with the minus 1 or 2

this is the sort of detail you get, I couldn't find a picture of the chart that shows the better detail. If you want to see it on your computer in real time, you would need the Bluetooth model. I have that function available on my old white one and I've never used it seriously.
http://healthcare.echostore.com/spo2-report-1.jpg

this is the better chart, You can adjust the display zoom this is for an hour. You can see the desat to 90% at 1:28