The closest either of us has ever come to using at-home medical equipment is Moo's asthma inhaler so this was all completely new territory for us. We were sent the Braun Exactfit 5 BP6200. At first I was really nervous about the thickness of the instruction manual, but on closer inspection I discovered it was in many languages, I guess it's true what they say; never judge a book by it's cover...or thickness, apparently.
Included is the monitor unit, batteries, two different sized arm cuffs, an instruction booklet and a little pouch to keep everything in safely.
The instructions were incredibly easy to follow and we were soon hooking it up to give it a whirl. It was a matter of seconds to connect the cuff and get it going to test ourselves. The unit saves your data (up to 60 measurements), and can save the info of up to two people (person A and person B) which is great for keeping an eye on your health, I thought this was especially true for pregnant women who are considered to be at risk for pre-eclampsia. The monitor also works out a daily average over 7 days which aids you in monitoring your blood-pressure figures.
Here are my pros and cons...
Pros.
- Incredibly easy to use.
- Quick set-up.
- Multi-user function.
- Sleek and compact design.
- Large, digital screen that is brightly back-lit for ease of reading.
Cons.
- We both found that as the cuff inflated around our arms, it got much tighter than those used in hospitals and doctors surgeries though we wonder if this is because it is new out of the box rather than seen several years use at the hands if the NHS!
