Respiratory Question - Help!

ButterflyWings

Forum mates,

I am giving DH breathing treatments (nebulizer) around the clock these days *for his asthma*, as often as every 4 hours. Stage 7a is throwing us a curve ball today as he is wheezing mightily, and coughing/choking, then OK to sleep for a while. I can't get the breathing treatment to work well enough today.

Can anyone help with a solution for how to get more mist out of the darn thing?

My problem is the duoneb solution mist is not coming out as much as it usually does. I'm sure it has something to do with the container part that attached below the mask, where you squirt the inhalation solution. Sorry for all the technical terms. Its been a day. And a sleepless night.

• If I don't wash the little container part out after 1 or 2 uses I think it gets a little clogged maybe (?).
• If I do wash it, same thing. No mist to speak of even if I use 2 vials of inhalation solution
• The tube thing that connects the mask to the machine does not seem to have any moisture in it, so its not that. (Yeah, I don't try to wash them out anymore! Bad idea!)
• This clogging or whatever, seems to happen especially when DH takes the mask off mid-treatment (at least every couple of treatments he does this =|) and then lays it down or its hanging upside down briefly and I think it clogs somehow.

What can I do? Hospice brought out 2 new mask kit things last week. I can't keep doing that and right now its too late anyway. Warehouse is closed til 8a. So I am giving a bit of morphine and he is wearing the oxygen canula. Our inhalers and disks aren't an option anymore as he can't figure out the breathe-in or breathe-out part (either blows into the inhaler or spacer, or tries to chew on the pump/inhaler device).

Poor thing. He just needs to breathe and the treatment isn't getting into his lungs much at all. That means the mask is only restricting what little breathing he can manage on his own and the machine is just making noise.

Respiratory therapists, pulmonologists, experienced caregivers out there. What can I do with these contraptions to fix it?

Marta

Get a new nebulizer set (the disposable parts) at the pharmacy? I hope that solves the problem. What does Hospice suggest?

ButterflyWings

https://alzconnected.org/discussion/comment/201906#Comment_201906

@Marta Hospice brought out 3 more sets this morning. Thanks! I probably should have let them replace the nebulizer too, but the current machine seems to be doing fine.