VITAL SIGNS
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO MONITOR THEM

First off is a good idea to contact your or your loved one’s healthcare provider and obtain what we call in the industry vital sign parameters. 

Your healthcare provider should provide you with a range for each vital sign she wants you to stay within and if outside the range wants to be contacted. 

You may wonder why it’s essential to monitor these things daily, and the reason is that it is an early warning system similar to what you have in your vehicle when you have those warning lights. If you monitor your vital signs every day, you should also be looking for trends that may be happening. You would also be able to provide additional information to your healthcare provider when making decisions about medication management. For example, -whether to go on medication or coming off of one that is now not needed.

The primary vital signs typically are easy to obtain and take less than five minutes to perform. They are your temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, possibly oxygen levels, weight, and blood sugar. Ideally, you are sitting still for five minutes to have an apples-to-apples comparison.

which VITAL SIGNS TO MONITOR

  • HEART RATE MONITORING

    If your heart rate is too high, also known as tachycardia, this could be caused by an underlying condition such as an infection or a heart issue

  • BODY TEMPERTURE

    First off is your temperature; as we all know, if your temperature is above 101.0°F, you likely have some infectious process going on. The sooner you obtain care, the less likely it is to become catastrophic and require hospitalization.

  • CHECK YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE

    Taking your blood pressure every day can prevent a disaster from happening. I find that more people understand how their car works as compared to how their blood pressure works.

  • OXYGEN LEVEL MONITORING

    measure your blood oxygen levels daily. Typically should stay above 90%, though if you have COPD, your healthcare provider may set your level => 88%.

  • WEIGHT MONITORING

    Watching your weight with a disease processes such as congestive heart failure, as weight gain overnight could indicate worsening of your condition.

  • MONITORING BLOOD SUGAR

    Blood sugar levels in a healthy range prevents low glucose levels which can cause a loss of function and prevent high glucose levels that causes damage.