Spitefully Yours

Hey there, friends. Welcome to spitefully yours with me, Andrea Welker, your resident health care advocate. I invite you to join me as we discuss health care and the patient experience in a post COVID world. Get ready for captivating conversations about health, wellness, patient advocacy, and everything in between. Let's redefine what finding good health means together.

Listener discretion is advised. Hey there, spite squad. We are back in the studio today, and I'm so excited. Today, we're gonna be reviewing the Wellu O2 Ring Continuous Oxygen Monitor Pulse Oximeter. And I'm so excited.

Now, I know that some of you, especially if you've been following me and you've been following me for a while, you know that sometimes I like to do product reviews. And I've got to tell you the reason why I want to do product reviews on this show is because as patients, we deserve to be armed with knowledge. And sometimes when we find things that we think might help us, we get really super excited. And sometimes those things end up being a bust, and sometimes these things can change our lives. So Annie and I, which you could hear in the background, we wanna tell you about this oximeter so that you can make the choice for yourself whether or not you think it could help you.

Now, let me tell you why it interests me. So in 2014, I had a head injury, and that affected my breathing. It affected how my body regulates oxygen. It impacted how my body works, like all kinds of things got affected. And so in the last few years, my breathing, my oxygen saturation levels, and other things have kind of been a little off.

And it's really nice to be able to have the way to monitor those at home. Now I did have a a pulse oximeter, you know, the kind that you put on your finger, on your the tip of your finger that maybe your She She didn't she didn't swallow it, but she just chewed it up to the point where it kind of didn't work anymore. So we had, I mean, that was that was we had to really, you know, explain to her, like, why trying to eat that was a bad idea. So, anyway, I decided I needed another pulse oximeter, and I thought, what can I use? What would I like to have?

And I had been seeing the wearable ones and I thought they were really cool. And I thought, well, you know, if I'm going to invest in my health, I really want to invest in my health. And I want to give myself the best of what I can afford. Because sometimes, you know, it's really difficult to afford things. As a patient, you have all these medications you didn't know you needed.

You have all these doctor's appointments, co pays, medical bills, procedure bills, like everybody wants you to pay them. So my goal is to tell you about some of the things that I know that work, or that might work for you, or that may help you or assist you. Because for those of you who could benefit from this, who are able to obtain 1, I think it could be extremely revolutionary for your health. And I'm not saying that to just shill something to you. I'm saying that because of what happened to me.

Now I've had this let's see. Where did I get this? I've had this sorry. I have to look at my show notes. I've had this since March 13th.

So I've worn this for a little, about a week and a half, almost 2 weeks. And I have to tell you, it has changed my sleeping patterns. It's changed a lot of things, and it's been very instrumental to my health. I've worn it during the day. I've worn it at night because my doctor and I suspect that I have sleep apnea.

So, in in which many people do, many people have sleep apnea. And it is something that contributes to a lot of medical conditions. And that is something that, you know, I don't need. You know, I already have enough. So being able to get that under control is something that's vitally important to me.

So after I talked to my doctor, I thought, well, you know, maybe I should figure out a way to monitor this at home because it's gonna apparently take months to get me into an actual sleep study. So I found this Huailu O2 Ring pulse oximeter on Amazon, and the reviews were were really, really good. They were 4 out of 5 stars with about 14, 1500 people. And then when I went and did some research on them, I found out that they were, acknowledged by the FDA. I found out that they had pretty good accuracy rate as far as oximeters go.

And I just was like, you know, I think this will work for me because it has a monitor, an ability to monitor my breathing from the time I get up until the time I go to sleep. And it will alert me if something is off. And that is what I need because, ever since my my head injury, my breathing has been kinda iffy. Sometimes I'll just hold my breath and I'll find myself not breathing. Or sometimes I'll actually get lightheaded or dizzy because my O2 levels drop or, you know, and I don't wanna pass out.

Right? So one of the things that, I've been able to start doing because of this is I've been able to just be more present in my body, pay more attention to my breathing. So I'm gonna share with you some things about this that you can find, in their on their website, and I just wanna kinda go over it. So one of the things that I really like about it is it's pretty sleek looking and it's made of silicone. And the ring itself is very comfortable, it's know, if you have sleep apnea.

It's really helping me correct a lot of behaviors, and I've noticed a decrease in how often I hold my breath. That's really important to me because, you know, I could make all the jokes on the world about how, like, I forget to breathe, but I really do. And when my pulse ox drops too low so most people, their pulse ox is between 90 a100, and mine can drop as low as the seventies during the day. Now to give you some context, when it drops in the eighties is when it starts affecting you mentally, and how your brain functions. And that's the point where you should go to the hospital.

And because of certain conditions that I have, we have to kind of figure out, like, every time it happens, you know, am I gonna be okay if I just breathe? Am I gonna be okay if I use my inhaler? Am I gonna be okay if, you know, do I just need to get outside and get some fresh air? Like, it really helps with that. The vibrating alarm is something that's really cool too, because it's kind of like a cell phone alarm or it's very, very subtle, but it's also you know, there are different levels of the vibration alarm, so you don't have to use, the the most intense version.

You can just use the version that's going to work for you, and you can figure that out through playing with it in trial and error. I can tell you that at night when the alarm goes off, the alarm doesn't go off from the ring itself. The alarm will actually go off from your cell phone. So your cell you can pick and choose whether you want that enabled or disabled. I enable it occasionally, because if I stop breathing or my pulse ox drops super low, I need to wake up, you know, so you can kind of pick and choose how you want it to function.

It's very customizable. It's very slick. The interface on your phone in the app is very slick, which by the way, it does have an app you use. Setting it up is super easy. It came partially charged, enough to be able to test it and use it, and it can take a few hours to charge, but it is something that I think is worth it.

My partner, he really found a lot of comfort in it, in that it could track my health more closely. It allows us to visually see what's going on in my body. It allows, the real time data updates. The trends that it tracks are something that we can give my doctor. It can help us make more empowered decisions about my health.

And as far as different tech and different fitness trackers, I did wear it with my Apple watch and it and it does integrate with Apple products, with Apple Health. So that's something that I I really enjoy. And I can say that the accuracy of the pulse oximeter is on par with like the Fitbit or the Apple Watch, and it paired with my phone and it the app was just super easy. So overall, I would absolutely recommend this to you because it's got an ease of use, it has accuracy, it's got these really cool features. And whether you're monitoring your general wellness because you are a health nut and you just love, knowing what your body is doing or if you need to monitor your health for a specific reason like sleep apnea or, you know, if you have apnea where you're awake or you need to monitor your pulse ox levels, you know, definitely consider this in your journey to better health because, you know, just the fact that, like, I have been able to rule out so many things with it means the world to me.

So I have started a new medication on it. And since I started wearing it, and I can actually tell if I take the medication. I can see the differences in my breathing while I sleep, and I can see the differences in my breathing when I don't take the medication. I can see differences in the sleeping positions I'm in, and I can notate all those things in the notes. So when I print it out for my doctor, I'm able to actually show that to them.

So that is really beneficial, and I can tell you from working with having a visual log they can see is is definitely crucial and paramount because there are some times, you know, you really just need to be able to have them see the data because you can tell them till you're blue in the face. And very often, practitioners will think you're exaggerating, but if you show them charts, data, whatever, they're more likely to believe you. So if you enjoy tech and you're looking for something cool to play with, consider picking this up. If you want to be able to monitor your health and monitor how you're doing and you really want to, like, get the value in, the the ring itself and the benefits of it, definitely pick 1 up, and they go on sale quite frequently. And I will say this price is it's a little steep.

It's a $180. Okay? It's a 159 right now through the website at the first airing of this episode, but the company also has a cheaper model for around 80 $85, $90 So it's something that even though it is a little pricey, you also can't put a price on your health. And so that's something that I definitely would consider checking out. And that is my review of the Wellu o two Continuous Oxygen Monitor.

I absolutely, absolutely recommend this device. And again, if you wanna check it out, I will drop the links in the comments, in the show notes. So thank you so much for listening. I hope you have a great day. And as always, stay spitefully aware and take care of yourselves, my friends.

I forever and always remain spitefully yours. Well, spite squad, that's the show today. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and share to spread the message of health and wellness advocacy. If you'd like to support my mission, you can concur contribute via the links in the episode description. You can visit my website, inspitewetrust.com, for more information.

Together, let's continue redefining what good health means. Until next time, stay empowered, stay spiteful and keep pissing people off. I'll see you next time.