Wrist Blood pressure/pulse monitor

Personal Preference

by Artist - 2016-09-05 22:11:55

My personal feelings are that wearing  wrist  monitor is a constant reminder that you have a PM.   Most  PM members work toward the objective of eventually forgetting about their PMs and living normal lives.  I understand the adjustment needs and concerns of a new PM recipient but in my experience I found it worked well for me to just use a BP cuff at home.  In the early days after my implant, I took  my BP first thing in the a.m., at bed time and if I felt any arrythmias. I did take my BP more frequently when my medications were changed and understand your concern, but still found that I had enough opportunities to just check when I was at home. I can see wearing a wrist monitor if you are trying to resume a strenuous exercise activity of some sort and you want to actively check the effect on your BPM. Otherwise, my personal opinion is that wearing a wrist monitor  is overkill and a constant reminder that you have a PM.  

Could not agree more..........

by Good Dog - 2016-09-06 08:19:56

I completely agree. Nothing wrong with measuring vitals for a reason like when working-out, but that is the only exception. The PM is meant to provide you with as normal a life as possible. A big part of living a normal life is to forget we have a PM and/or an issue that requires a PM. That is a huge part of returning to a higher quality of life!

monitoring

by Tracey_E - 2016-09-06 10:02:43

As the others said, it's easy to go overboard with monitoring and make yourself crazy. If you are on bp meds, ask your doc how often you should be checking but morning and evening should be plenty.

As for pulse, we don't follow those nice little target heart rate charts. Some wear heart rate monitors during exercise. I never found one that works accurately for me so I go by how I feel. I keep a pulse oximeter in my gym bag but only get it out if I feel bad. It's been so long since I used it that I'm not even sure if it's still there ;)  If I feel good and have a good sweat going, can talk but not sing, then I assume my rate is where it needs to be.

It takes some time to get used to being paced and to learn to trust the pacer to do its job, but they are high tech computers, much more dependable than our wonky hearts. Go live your life. 

HR Charts

by BillH - 2016-09-06 11:50:59

Those charts are based on a max HR of 220-age.

It is the rare unicorn that matches those.

There are some formula floating around that are more accurate, but still only googd for large populations It can still be off by 10-15-20 for individuals.

My Polar HR monitor which reset the max to 220-age whenever I change the battery or on my birthday. Then it reports that I am doing 120% of max HR.

The best method is from a stress test, but only if they allow you to go as long as you are able.

Otherwise correlate you HR to your precived effort.

Good Advicee

by Figallegro - 2016-09-06 13:35:15

Thank you all for your comments as I can see a strong tendency to go overboard in monitoring everything. Looks like I saved a bunch of money.  This is a fantastic website.

My experience with the home wrist cuff monitors

by vegas_erin - 2016-09-11 11:26:49

I find that the readings(BP especially) are off a considerable amount vs the machines used by doctor's offices. I asked my EP cardiologist about that and he said that is very common. Luckily I got a good deal on the one I bought. Even tge Fitbits have been in the news recently for not giving accurate readings.