Bipap and appetite questions

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Thanks for the response. I can appreciate that doctors are basically "dart throwing" Another thread made it quit clear in one ER, the doctors said we don't want your "dart" and used their own "spear". In short, they refused the client's BiPAP and put the patient on their own Oxygen machine. Results were not good! One does not want to know my own experience with doctors when I got sick (long time ago). That is a story worthy of a comedy feature film! I did survive, but was hard pressed at overcoming those trying to chisel that second date on my headstone.

Your comparison about blowing out someone's lungs with these machines brings up a good point. The "night shift" that I have come in, reset the Trilogy! So, the RT came back (he gets the readings which are transmitted to him at where ever his office is at) and reset the machine and locked it.

My PALS also uses a "Carrot" (this is a miniature inflatable "football" shaped item to keep her fist from clamping down on itself as part of the atrophy process. The cough machine has an inflatable mask. The mask and the carrot each have their own inflate tool. One for the carrot is a black bulb after big enough to fill one's fist. The other is a small clear plastic syringe looking affair. Obviously the bulb can produce higher inflation pressures. I once caught the help pretty much about ready to blow out the face mask using the bulb.

On the Trilogy - I would need a class on doing the settings - and what the parameter range should be and what adverse affects to be looking for to get it with patient's accepted range with best support of patient. For CALS, I would HIGHLY recomend training on ANY equipment brought into the PALS home.

My PALS was prescribed a neck brace that looked like a medieval torture device. When it arrived it came with the warning that it should be fitted by a professional. I TRY and be professional, but often I am a long way off from that distinction - no certs nor sheepskins. After a "professional" fitted her with it, I drove her home wearing it. The hour long drive home wearing it, put red marks all over her clavicles and was severely hurting her. She pulled it off and It is now a paperweight.
 
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When PALS Tom recently went into the hospital with pneumonia...the attending physician asked us to "go home and get your bipap and use it here. We want him on the same machine and settings as he is at home." Then they had me manage the bipap at the hospital.
Its a brave new world out there when the CALS is the trusted caregiver. (And the staff knew they cant give him the needed attention).
 
Gunny, a Trilogy /Astral cheat sheet is on my profile. It's not everything I know, but it's enough to keep you from blowing out anyone's lungs, which no one here has yet, far as I know. The rest of the question is individualized adjustment, which is what I help do.

As for cervical collars, I always advise starting with medium density foam and working your way up to metal only if you need it. There are collars now that are hard plastic with foam interiors, as a hybrid example. Few PALS need anything as structured as what you describe, if they are properly positioned in bed/wheelchair at home and away, making use of tilt and recline to support their neck.

Most PALS do not have enough muscle control in other parts of the body to make good use of a structured neck collar without postural support (begging the necessity of the collar), and if someone is slumping with one, it can be dangerous.
 
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