Re: Excessive secretions
Becky Harry (skoots(AT)worldnet.att.net)
Mon, 06 Oct 1997 23:19:24 -0400
At 02:09 AM 10/7/97 +0000, you wrote:
>
> I hope someone can offer some suggestions for how to deal with
>secretions in the morning.
>
>To give some background, I am a 50 year old male with a progressive
>neurological
> disorder called Spinal Muscular Atrophy. About a year and a half
>ago I had respiratory failure which resulted in a tracheostomy. I
>use a vent at night only. My vent is a PLV-100 with a external
>humidifier.
>
>My problem is this: after I have been up for 1 to 2 hours, I start to
>accumulate mucus
> and it requires that I go to a counter and cough for 1 to 2 hours.
>As a result, I am exhausted. This seems to happen just about every
>morning. Occasionally, I have no problem. As I recall, last year I
>was clear for two or 3 months. But I don't know y. My wife and I
>have adjusted the level of the humidifier, but nothing seems to help.
> I am not taking any medication. I tried Humidibin (sp?), but it
>didn't make any real difference.
>
>I really hope someone has a suggestion.
>
>Regards,
>
>Charlie Elman
>
>Ps. To reduce the amount of condensation, we have wrapped the tubing
>in a small electric blanket. This has been very effective.
>
>
>
Charlie,
I too use a PlV-100 at nite only, but i don't use a external humidifier,
i find it is too much moisture for me. I use a little thing call a
Thermovent 600 by Portex, it a little plastic tube like thing that fits
right in with the tubing connection. It has a filter inside it that the air
passes threw cause it to be humidified. They are disposiable and i just
change it once a week. It works great for me, just enough moisture for me.
Also do you do any kind of aresol nebulizer treatments? I do one first
thing in the morning after I get up, it loosen all the secretions up and I
am able to cough or suction them out after the treatments. The moring neb
treatments make a big difference, it really opens me up so i can breathe
and get the scretions out of me. I hope this was of some help to you. Any
questions just hollar, i'll try and help if i can.
Huggs,
Becky