i carry a finger 02 monitor in my purse at all times. primarily because i am not always the greatest judge of what i am feeling. Jan last year my little monitor told me my sats were 72 i raced my little butt to ER even though they had sent me home twice already. only to find out i had pericarditis pneumonia and pleural effusion both lung which turned out to be a lung bleed. round two jun going up stairs can't breath my trusty little friend says this looks bad go to pulmonolagist and it is pneumonia again. fast forward October my little monitor says you are not working to hard your sats are 72.friend haul my butt two towns over to large E.R. and Wala Lots of P.E.'s. upon discharge get the standard you are gonna have periods of SOB weren't kidding with tachycardia. weren't kidding again . but my little monitor also told me the tachycardia was improving substantially over what it was when i left the hospital and the SOB episodes were there but different not so crushing. then in comes Tuesday just out running and errand. by the way listen to you mother, never run errands in your grungy sweats may as ell have been my underwear. somebody is gonna catch you. I walk in to a pet place and no air was moving in my lungs, and my trusty monitor said my heart rate was 200. major big red flag. me being the major cheapnic that she can be knew the urgent care was only across the street and as soon as i sat down everything would return to normal long enough to get me there.. best plans still can get harry. i couldn't get out of the car. so i drove a few blocks to E.R. because sitting down everything was fine. i pull up and best laid plans again a new hospital with new entrances and new parking. no emergency door pull up the emergency push button i can't get out of the car thinggy. i could not remember their phone number for them to walk out the door. so i ran in and all i could get out was NO AIR HELP. powers that be were practically sitting on me in 5 seconds at that point my heart rate was 180 and they didn't even tell me what the o2 was. just spent day and a half in CICU. ekg first led them to think i had a heart attack but it turned out to be pneumonia for the third time this year alone on top of the P.E..Moral of the story every one of us needs a half way decent pulse ox finder thinggy readily handi like not in the bottom of the late bills drawer. second next time i'll lay in the middle of the road probably safer for ever one else. not really the one thing that seems to hold true for me at least is no matter how scary the breathing and heart rate has gotten standing up. as soon as i sit down it gives a very deceptive calm all is normal. long enough to get help. next program you E.R. number in your phone oh that is note to dumb self that i didn't do last week. oh and i listened to you guys i was not afraid to ask for pain medication because although the horse is not sitting on my chest the mastiff still is, and the medication really help get the air farther down than when their is a lot of pain. and how was your week. this is the second year in a row this has happened at Christmas and i came home to a moldy Christmas ham in the frig.