When I began to have to be on the vent full time in the past 2 years, it
was even more important that I get that tube in quickly to get back on
the vent. I came up with the idea of putting the swivel adapter at the
end of the vent tubing in my mouth before I removed the trach tube.
Everyone said that it would not work, that the alarms would go on, that I
would lose too much air through the stoma. I did not care about the
alarms and I was not planning on leaving the stoma wide open for long.
It works perfectly. I am still ventilated through my mouth. Once the
new tube is in and the inner cannula inserted, I reconnect to my trach.
It takes away some of the fear, although I did go back to having a
visiting nurse come and watch in case something goes wrong.
I have gotten terrible pain and swelling around the stoma separate from
trach changes. Sometimes the swelling increases until something bursts
and I find some blood on the trach dressing. Once that happens, the pain
is gone. During these times I use Neosporin or Bacitracin salve around
the area, but I'm not sure they really help.
Gail ........The BEAD goes on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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