Think I may have aspirated. Advice please

[Guest guest]

Out of the blue I have oceans of secretions. Been awake all night

trying to clear them with cough assist. Just had 80 min long session

and yet still failed to clear my chest totally.

I slightly rushed my evening meal and though I didn't have a choking

sensation my chest just felt slightly odd.

What is the best way to treat this in someone with sma? Do I just keep

using cough assist endlessly. Are antibiotics useful? Currently

secretions all clear.

The only other cause I can think of for this massive amount of

congestion are calcium channel blockers which I started taking on

Tuesday for supra-ventricular tachycardia. It isn't listed as a side

effect but that is the only other obvious thing to put this scary

problem down to.

Hope someone out there has useful experience to offer. I am 47 with sma 2

Sent from my iPhone.

[Guest guest]

Chest PT and an Actifed-like medication (Pseudoephedrine) helps me with

aspirations. Hope you clear soon. xox

________________________________

From: Moss <lindajmoss@...>

" " < >

Sent: Thu, September 2, 2010 11:33:58 PM

Subject: Think I may have aspirated. Advice please

Out of the blue I have oceans of secretions. Been awake all night

trying to clear them with cough assist. Just had 80 min long session

and yet still failed to clear my chest totally.

I slightly rushed my evening meal and though I didn't have a choking

sensation my chest just felt slightly odd.

What is the best way to treat this in someone with sma? Do I just keep

using cough assist endlessly. Are antibiotics useful? Currently

secretions all clear.

The only other cause I can think of for this massive amount of

congestion are calcium channel blockers which I started taking on

Tuesday for supra-ventricular tachycardia. It isn't listed as a side

effect but that is the only other obvious thing to put this scary

problem down to.

Hope someone out there has useful experience to offer. I am 47 with sma 2

Sent from my iPhone.

[Guest guest]

, my daughter aspirates often with food but she chokes most obviously at

the table, going red in the face and unable to speak - small uncontrollable

choking fits of coughing. Usually we resolve the problem on the spot with an

Ambu bag (we have no CoughAssist) and it takes quite a while to get her back to

normal. On the worst occasions it has lasted a couple of days but then she says

she feels a weight in her chest, whether that's the foreign object or the mucous

itself I don't know. The most important thing is chest PT, drainage (not too

long due to her hiatus hernia), using her Bipap during the day to keep the

airways open, and she has found eucalyptus inhalations helpful in loosening the

congestion. We have a home-made piece of apparatus consisting of a funnel

turned upside-down over a saucepan of boiling water with the eucalyptus and we

connect a tube with a mouthpiece to the funnel (have to be careful with the hot

steam though). All in all, it sounds to me like what you have is reflux, which

is more " silent " but can cause a lot of congestion, and any invading substance

can create a lot of mucous which the body creates to sweep it away.

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the input. I now have a temp and yellow secretions so taking

augmentin. I am taking an overnight cold/flu med which has the med you

mentioned lori as one of the ingredients. Only taking half dose as Alana

tells me it can increase heart rate. Got 4 hours sleep which was fab!!!

Thanks for reminding me about eucalyptus . I might add it to the water

I have in humidifier on my bipap unless someone here advises ageist such?

I am trying to get into a good habit of doing 3 sessions of thorough pt a

day, with a couple of brief cough assist sessions in between.

Why don't you get a cough assist ?

Is it ok to turn bipap settings up and to what when got a chest infection?

And to what? My usual settings are 15/3.

Cheers

Sent from my phone

On 4 Sep 2010, at 13:59, <julie.marlow@...> wrote:

, my daughter aspirates often with food but she chokes most obviously

at the table, going red in the face and unable to speak - small

uncontrollable choking fits of coughing. Usually we resolve the problem on

the spot with an Ambu bag (we have no CoughAssist) and it takes quite a

while to get her back to normal. On the worst occasions it has lasted a

couple of days but then she says she feels a weight in her chest, whether

that's the foreign object or the mucous itself I don't know. The most

important thing is chest PT, drainage (not too long due to her hiatus

hernia), using her Bipap during the day to keep the airways open, and she

has found eucalyptus inhalations helpful in loosening the congestion. We

have a home-made piece of apparatus consisting of a funnel turned

upside-down over a saucepan of boiling water with the eucalyptus and we

connect a tube with a mouthpiece to the funnel (have to be careful with the

hot steam though). All in all, it sounds to me like what you have is reflux,

which is more " silent " but can cause a lot of congestion, and any invading

substance can create a lot of mucous which the body creates to sweep it

away.

[Guest guest]

I now RUN to the doc for a Zpack as soon as I feel anything weird in my chest. I

waited too long about a year ago trying to treat it @ home and got really,

really sick. I hope you are feeling better, . Please keep us updated.

~a

________________________________

From: Moss <lindajmoss@...>

" " < >

Sent: Fri, September 3, 2010 12:33:58 AM

Subject: Think I may have aspirated. Advice please

Out of the blue I have oceans of secretions. Been awake all night

trying to clear them with cough assist. Just had 80 min long session

and yet still failed to clear my chest totally.

I slightly rushed my evening meal and though I didn't have a choking

sensation my chest just felt slightly odd.

What is the best way to treat this in someone with sma? Do I just keep

using cough assist endlessly. Are antibiotics useful? Currently

secretions all clear.

The only other cause I can think of for this massive amount of

congestion are calcium channel blockers which I started taking on

Tuesday for supra-ventricular tachycardia. It isn't listed as a side

effect but that is the only other obvious thing to put this scary

problem down to.

Hope someone out there has useful experience to offer. I am 47 with sma 2

Sent from my iPhone.

[Guest guest]

My daughter has had a low temperature too on a couple of occasions after

aspirating badly so that's normal and I think you are correct in taking

Augmentin in precaution considering the secretions are yellow; that's the first

antibiotic they prescribe her before resorting to anything stronger. I don't

know about adding eucalyptus to the Bipap humidifier, we don't have a humidifier

and anyway I honestly believe that eucalyptus steam inhalations are best, it's

50% the steam and 50% the plant that does the good so maybe you could try

sitting at the table over a pan of steaming water with a towel over your head

and the pan. I've heard people turn up their Bipap settings but we've never been

advised to do it, just told to use it during the day too, so I don't touch them.

As for the Cough Assist, here where we live, in Spain, the local NHS authority

only approves them for children, not adults, so we were given an Ambu bag by the

hospital and taught to use it with an assisted cough. We do fine with it,

though it's not so automatic, and also it's portable - unlike the machine - so

if we eat out we take it. And one thing about assisted coughs; don't overdo

them because too much coughing puts stress on the lungs and can produce even

more secretions, so don't be too zealous, just do it regularly and as needed.

And drink a lot. People with SMA often don't drink enough.

One last thing - we consider a Ventolin inhaler of vital importance when there's

congestion! One dose every 4 hours.

Hope all goes well soon.

- .

http://elaticodejulie.spaces.live.com/

http://juliesattic.spaces.live.com/

[Guest guest]

, when my daughter is really bad she has to stay lying down all the time so

the secretions don't slip down. She uses Bipap all the time too except to eat

as we haven't found a way to use it while eating though I give her purés

frequently - baby-food texture - and then she pops the mask on again. She lies

flat completely on our sofa during the day. When she drains (doing chest PT at

same time) we turn her round on her bed to her feet are at the head; the bed is

raised 20 cms at the head end due to her hiatus hernia, but she drains only for

about 15 mins so acid doesn't come up. A she gets better, and it's very slow,

she can start to sit up for short periods only to eat, then back to lying down.

PS: I'm not familiar with this new look and at the moment rather

confused with it!

-

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the feedback. How many times a day do you do the 15 mins tipping

by 20 cm a day?

Sent from my phone

On 10 Sep 2010, at 14:34, julie.marlow@... wrote:

, when my daughter is really bad she has to stay lying down all the

time so the secretions don't slip down. She uses Bipap all the time too

except to eat as we haven't found a way to use it while eating though I give

her purés frequently - baby-food texture - and then she pops the mask on

again. She lies flat completely on our sofa during the day. When she drains

(doing chest PT at same time) we turn her round on her bed to her feet are

at the head; the bed is raised 20 cms at the head end due to her hiatus

hernia, but she drains only for about 15 mins so acid doesn't come up. A she

gets better, and it's very slow, she can start to sit up for short periods

only to eat, then back to lying down.

PS: I'm not familiar with this new look and at the moment

rather confused with it!

-

[Guest guest]

She drains her chest about twice a day, three at the most, lying on her back

then on her side. She nearly always only has one side of the chest affected,

they say it’s the side where least air passes through. She says she feels

good with her chest tipped down like that but can’t overdo it due to her

hernia and the acid coming up though she never does it on an empty stomach, she

tries to eat something first, and if she tires when coughing she stops and rests

until she feels stronger.