Yesterday my son kindly supported me to go to hospital for breathing tests and to see physio about equipment (my last hospital appointment must have been good 7 months ago?). I use my Bipap ventilator all night, and increasingly in the day when feeling too tired and breathless. I have got 2 ventilators, one with a battery for power cuts and going out/away. Physio suggested both have batteries in case power cut whilst sleeping, and I will now keep one for daytime use when I am feeling particularly breathless, with higher settings. I am also trying a new mask which seems easier to breathe through. All useful, physios kind and helpful.
Then we looked at my cough assist, which I didn't initially take to because I thought it strained my throat too much. However, having had a chest infection and great difficulty breathing with mucus blocking my throat, I am very keen to find things to help in such a horrible situation. I have been practising on the cough assist regularly since then, on its original low settings, but haven't really noticed it helping bring up phlegm or bring up something I have choked on. But mind you the phlegm is not really bothering me much now, it being a lot thinner on carbocysteine. So the physios persevered getting me to try different settings until I was tired and my voice so croaky. Anyway I brought cough assist home to try on more powerful settings.
In the evening I tried to eat some pureed ready meal, but the first mouthful really set off a bad laryngospasm. Used to get some of these but not at all recently, and this time it seemed to affect me more, racing heart, hot, trembling, absolutely exhausted. I remembered Ellie's advice to just relax, which I attempted after trying unsuccessfully to open the door for fresh air. Just checked threads on this subject. My guess is that my throat was very sensitised by working so hard on cough assist. But will consult the physios. Anyway, I suppose there isn't anything preventative that will help prevent these? In a drawer I have an old bottle of baclofen, was it for preventing cramp? I think I was getting cramp in my hands when using them a lot, eg preparing veg for cooking, and cramp in my legs. Is laryngospasm similar? Thanks
All this equipment to keep me alive! I used to try to live a simple life with low carbon footprint ! x
Then we looked at my cough assist, which I didn't initially take to because I thought it strained my throat too much. However, having had a chest infection and great difficulty breathing with mucus blocking my throat, I am very keen to find things to help in such a horrible situation. I have been practising on the cough assist regularly since then, on its original low settings, but haven't really noticed it helping bring up phlegm or bring up something I have choked on. But mind you the phlegm is not really bothering me much now, it being a lot thinner on carbocysteine. So the physios persevered getting me to try different settings until I was tired and my voice so croaky. Anyway I brought cough assist home to try on more powerful settings.
In the evening I tried to eat some pureed ready meal, but the first mouthful really set off a bad laryngospasm. Used to get some of these but not at all recently, and this time it seemed to affect me more, racing heart, hot, trembling, absolutely exhausted. I remembered Ellie's advice to just relax, which I attempted after trying unsuccessfully to open the door for fresh air. Just checked threads on this subject. My guess is that my throat was very sensitised by working so hard on cough assist. But will consult the physios. Anyway, I suppose there isn't anything preventative that will help prevent these? In a drawer I have an old bottle of baclofen, was it for preventing cramp? I think I was getting cramp in my hands when using them a lot, eg preparing veg for cooking, and cramp in my legs. Is laryngospasm similar? Thanks
All this equipment to keep me alive! I used to try to live a simple life with low carbon footprint ! x
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