tracheotomy

I may be going for tracheotomy and the ventilator next week. the bipap that I'm using gets unplugged rather easily -- both the electrical power and the air hosing -- I am hoping the ventilator will be much more robust. I've got some international traveling that I would like to do. I want to...

Well, two saturdays ago Jen and I took an ambulance ride to the ER for respiratory distress. The next day while in the hospital for pnuemonia her mucous filmed over her airway and not me nor the nurse nor the on call respiratory doctor could clear the airway. They intubated her right there in...

Hi Everyone, I have been creeping this forum for nearly a month now, reading through all the threads throughout the site trying to learn as much as I can about ALS/MND. My father is currently in the intensive care unit, being supported by a ventilator. We have been hopping back and forth...

I am getting close to needing a vent. I have read several good threads on vent/not vent but no one has mentioned laryngeal diversion. I ran across this article from MDA:It discusses laryngeal diversion. http://www.als-mda.org/publications/als/als13_5.html#aspiration I was wondering if...

Hi all, my grandmother is failing incredibly fast from ALS as diagnosed late this last winter. She is now on a feeding tube and likely soon to have a tracheotomy to help her breathe. She is almost completely immobile now, and needs help to do anything- in the last two months the decline has been...

Hi all, I must say that I truly appreciate the people who have responded to my posts the past two weeks. I am faced with a poor prognosis, and have been told by one of my doctors, that I MUST have my Advance Directive filled out before I go back on my chemotherapy, which is in three weeks...

I had fluoroscopy this week showing at least half my diaphragm is paralyzed. I will be having a tracheotomy Friday and use a ventilator at night. My pulmonary specialist feels this will help my daytime functioning. Have any of you had any experience in this area? I would be interested in hearing...

My mum's been recently diagnosed with ALS. She's still in the hospital and had tracheotomy done. She's currently attached to Vivo 30 (http://www.breas.com/breas_templates/Page____772.aspx). My question is what type of machine is that? A ventilator or bipap? Or are they the same? The nurses...

My husband is facing choices with negative trade offs. Anyone had hands on experience with managing trachs at home? Because of choking all the time, even on his own saliva, and also having laryngeal spasms, Dr.s recommend a trach or laryngotracheal separation. Any experience with either one?

This was in a newsletter from ALS Association I get monthly. Paul Gordon, M.D., at Columbia University working with Robert Miller, M.D., and colleagues in the Western ALS Study Group, presented a Phase III trial of minocycline that showed an adverse effect in the primary outcome, the ALS...