If you are experiencing frequent ectopic beats, or small variations of an otherwise normal heart beat, or if you occasionally experience heart palpitations, which are uncomfortable feelings associated with abnormally fast and forceful heart beats, you may be a good candidate to look into getting a portable home EKG machine.
You may have seen a doctor or a cardiologist, and they may have taken an ECG, but, due to the irregularity of the episodes, they may have a hard time finding anything in the ECG they could take in the office. Or, maybe the conditions in the doctors office are just so different that you simply do not experience anything unusual there, but when you come home, the ectopic beats or palpitations appear again.
We will describe three advantages of using a simple personal ECG monitor at home instead of in a doctors office or hospital. They are: measuring the heart beat during your normal daily activities, doing it from the comfort of your home, and cost.
Measuring the heart beat abnormalities during normal activities
It is important to do the heart beat measurements during your regular work day. Modern home EKG devices are so small that you can easily wear them under the clothes. Some of them are even wireless, so you can connect the electrodes to the monitor wirelessly, causing even less distraction. As your heart rhythms are being measured, you go on doing your regular activities, except for bathing and showering. You take good notes of everything you do.
Being in your regular environment will help you "catch" the moments when palpitations occur all of a sudden, or when you experience any ectopic beats at all.
Staying at home and monitoring ECG
Many people much prefer staying at home instead of in a hospital if at all possible. They simply prefer to stay with people they know instead with strangers, no matter how friendly the hospital staff. So wearing the ECG electrodes and being helped by family is much preferred. Modern technologies such as wireless ECG, or miniature home ECG monitor, and even internet transfer of data to the hospital make home EKG measurements easy and productive.
For instance, 24 hour monitoring, even during sleep, are quite possible when no wires are worn to connect to the main EKG device.
Cost of hospital stay
Last but not least, hospital stay is very expensive in the USA today. Many folks lack complete insurance, so even a deductible, or coinsurance of 20%-40% can be a big hit on the wallet, even for a single night spent at the hospital. The cost of a home EKG machine, or a small pocket ECG, is quite small and will pay for itself after just a single day of use at home. When you learn how to turn the handheld ECG machine on, place the EKG calipers and ECG leads, and learn the basics of ECG interpretation, you will be in good shape.
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