Any suggestions for wearable devices to track O2 sats, heart rate, respirations, blood pressure, etc. for a senior with CHF?

I have a Garmin Venu. It does not measure BP and only measures o2 sat once a week unless you set it to measure that all the time, which runs down the battery pretty quickly.

What is the probkem with mom using her O2 meter? Have you considered just leaving it on at night?

Is your mom's anxiety being treated medically?

My mom was quite literally driving us crazy with her obsession about her blood pressure. Took it many times a day, called us with the results, etc.

Once we got her into an Independent Living facility and started her seeing a geriatrician, he realized that, while she had a bp issue, her out of control anxiety was making it worse. The geriatric psychiatrist he referred her to treated the anxiety AND got the underlying cognitve decline that was causing it out in the open.

I guess what I'm saying is that you may need to dig a bit deeper.

I am 67 and I find my Garmin V to be difficult to manage at times--I mostly use it to count steps, keep track of my workouts and heart rate.

When it starts telling me to get up and move, meditate or do something else, I can't figure out how to get it to stop doing that, lol.

I have an adult son with a long, complex medical history. Part of it is low O2 sats. His doctors have for many years encouraged us not to watch his sats, they’ve seen too many get obsessed with the numbers when there’s often no effective way to change them. My son lives with his low sats and never is bothered by it. It has enormous potential to make us all crazy if we focus on it, so the finger monitor we have stays in a drawer and is used probably 4 times a year. I’d encourage you not to egg on this number focus and seek anxiety meds if it can’t be stopped. My dad had CHF for many years. It’s a slow, insidious process with little effective long term symptom relief. Watching the numbers super closely will emphasize what there’s no fix for. Wish you both peace

Since you mentioned shortness of breath, especially at night, I was wondering if your mother is on oxygen. The only reason I ask is because every now and then my mother's doctor would order a test to check her oxygen level at night while sleeping. It would clip to her finger and she had to wear it the entire night.

My mom is 76 and has managed her CHF for many years and she has a pacemaker. She lives with us but has her own studio apartment for her privacy and independence. On April 14, she had an ischemic stroke at home. She spent 10 days inpatient in an ICU followed by 14 days in an inpatient acute rehab hospital. She has now been back home with us approximately two weeks.

She needs help with many tasks now as she gets easily winded. She has definitely had more anxiety since the stroke and has begun taking a low dose of Ativan for anxiety. Most concerning to her and me is that upon falling asleep, she wakes up gasping for air and then has anxiety about going back to sleep again. During these episodes, her oxygen saturations are remaining mostly in the high 90s, but she has become obsessed with checking it with the oximeter.

Since her stroke, I’ve been sleeping in her bedroom, and I can hear her having apnea episodes where she stops breathing for a few seconds and then wakes up gasping. Last week, we began working with a palliative care team, and I’m planning to request a sleep study for her. I would also like to have oxygen prescribed as it seems to me that having supplemental oxygen would make her more comfortable and calm her more quickly.

I questioned the breathing episodes both in the ICU and the rehab hospital, but they were hyper focused on her brain and the stroke. Since she has been home with us, and I’m sleeping in her room, it is becoming more and more concerning to me.

She sleeps with the head of her bed elevated and sleeps on her left side.

Thanks for reading.

Your mention of her being "easily winded", and waking up gasping for air suggests to me that she should see a pulmonologist, for in office and at home night testing.   The latter can be arranged by the pulmonologist's office.   Results are provided to the pulmonologist, who determines if night oxygen would be appropriate.

Also mention the apnea episodes.

I'm curious though if her condition at only 76 is such that it merits palliative care.   Did one of her doctors suggest this?