Low oxygen sats - any ideas what's wrong?

[LittleMissGreen]

Back in April I started getting very dizzy. My smart watch said my oxygen sats were regularly dropping to between 80 and 85%. (Checked with finger oximeter and comparable results)
Doc did loads of tests and decided that my iron and vitamin B levels were all just on the low side of normal but not massively so.
Gave me vitamin pills and said to come back in 3 months.
Initially it helped and my sats went back to normal but recently I have started fainting and for the last 2 weeks my sats have been under 85 more often than above it.
Saw a different gp who said it must be my ears, but he did blood tests just in case. Will get results next week.
Any ideas what it could be as feels like gp clutching at straws and I feel terrible!

Has anyone given you a chest X-ray?

Yeah, you need to go to A&E.

Your GP ‘thinks’ isn’t really good enough, you need proper investigations with equipment they don’t have.

I was told to ring 111 if my sats went below 90 when I had covid.

Lots of women who have heavy or frequent periods need to be on iron for life

Even after menopause? What scientific evidence do you have of this?

Probably getting to A&e would be sensible?
sometimes people have poor circulation in their fingers so the oximeter shows a falsely low reading, BUT it is better to make sure this is the case (a&e will have other methods of testing)

When my mum was really ill with Covid, the paramedic told us home pulse oxs often read falsely low.

You really should be checked at A&E. They kept my mum in with sats of 88% and she was quite poorly for a couple of weeks.

He is just a bloke who interviews people. Are you going to discount everyone who has been on it? Jesus, some people.

I find it hard to believe any doctor would see unexplained sats of 85 and not send you to hospital

Yes this.

A reading of 88 got one of my dc blue lighted to hospital from the GP's office...one reading had him calling 999.

85 is very far from normal. Either every medical professional you've seen has been grossly negligent or you're mistaken and the true readings were higher.

No doctor would tell you to ‘keep an eye’ on sats of 88% and send you on your merry way.

Exactly my thoughts! It's very low with no explanation I.e a lung condition or cardiac,

I'd be asking questions, especially as you are saying you are breathless.

Another one for you should be in hospital sorry - I have never heard of someone with such low sats.
I think you should ring 111.
What has your blood pressure been?
My daughter has POTs its when your body struggles to regulate your blood pressure and you can have low blood pressure making you feel faint. Maybe google POTs to see if its relevant to you.

Are you breathless? If your SATSs were actually 85% you’d be struggling for breath. So if your GP sees you sitting there calmly explaining your SATs are 85%, they are definitely going to assume something else is the issue, because they are looking at you and your presenting symptoms, not your watch. I’ve no idea how accurate smart watch SATs are, but if you can speak a full sentence without needing to stop for breath, oxygen isn't an issue, and your GP can clearly see that. They don’t need a SATs monitor to see you aren’t in respiratory distress and will look for different causes. I really would stop worrying about your SATs in isolation. They can be difficult to take from some people and if they really were that low, there would be other (blindingly obvious!) signs.

A reading of 88 got one of my dc blue lighted to hospital from the GP's office...one reading had him calling 999.

This is very similar to what happened with my youngest - ambulance straight from GP surgery. His sats were bouncing around in the late eighties. He was also sent to A and E when his sats were in the early nineties, but I was allowed to drive him myself on those occasions.

You need to take this very seriously and get yourself properly checked out.

Yes get this checked out A&E, they are low and various things need to be checked and ruled out. It might also be worth getting another oximeter if the hospital cannot confirm under 90 just in case.

If your sats was 85, and the dr told you to ‘keep an eye’ then the dr failed you and you should get them struck off

I just cant believe this to be true!

IF this is true and you have sats of 85% and you arent very breathless, then i suspect you have a lung condition like COPD
Because its not normal at all

IF your sats are 85% NOW, go to A&E tonight
You wont be sitting and waiting, you will be put on oxygen straight away

In reply to a question earlier when I referred to women with heavy periods needing to be on iron for life, and the subsequent enquiry about ‘what even in menopause’…

Er, once you’re in menopause you no longer have ‘heavy periods’ so of course that advice doesn’t apply.

And why the demand for evidence? We should ask nicely for what we want. Not demand. I can’t oblige as my post was misunderstood but that’s not the point.

Shame someone else complained about my other post where I put a link to an interview which gave the evidence that she’d requested that proved my point. But she didn’t even read it.

Why be so scared to just listen to it? If it’s bollocks fine. Make that judgement yourself after you have read info or listened to info.

All people should have the right to have all the evidence for or against things and then make up all our minds what to believe.

It appears that information just gets taken down here if it’s contrary to popular opinion or someone doesn’t like the interviewer, let alone the subject matter!