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Not Enough Hours in the Day Without Trio

That Is EverythingI’ve mused in past articles, particularly those about my compliance and having the Trio for my nebulizer being the integral part of that compliance. Last night, as we were laying in front of the boob tube (no, not watching boobs, being boobs), I had to get up and start my nebs because Beautiful has insisted that I stop going to bed at 1 or 2am watching my site stats from my midnight posts.

She caught herself protesting my abandoning her to go to the couch, but realized before she was done that I was making a sacrifice, too, because I was comfortable and enjoying spending time with her – it was not my preference to get up.

As I made it into the kitchen, she said something to the effect of, “Aerosols, aerosols, aerosols! If you didn’t have the eFlow, you’d be doing them all day long, seriously! You’d start in the morning, and by the time you were done, it’d be time to do your afternoon one, and then we’d eat and you’d just start over again… for another 3 hours.” I’d literally be doing 6-8 hours of aerosols per day. I’m sorry, but that’s not a compatible way to live a life and “live a life.” You can’t hold down a job doing that, and even running  your own business from the couch would be hard, too.

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My Nebulizer’s “Dirty Head” for Colistin and Hyper-Sal 7% Saline

3 headsI mentioned on Twitter or the site (I’m getting so old now, I can’t remember anything) that I was using my “dirty head” at the moment. Someone asked for clarification, so I thought it to be worthy of a post now, so I can explain how I roll with 5 treatments in a row.

Pre-requisite reading: Fatboy’s Nebulizer Life

Now that you know my routine, here is the tip part of the write-up on the method I’ve learned after 4 years of having eFlows. I touched on it when talking about my 7% saline dose. Did you catch it? When I receive a new shipment of colistin, PSI is nice enough to send me a new Trio head. Getting Foundation Care to send a new head was like pulling teeth – it was every 3rd shipment and the metal disc was all bubbly and clogged by then. To say I’m happy with PSI would be a great understatement.

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A Medical Look at a Regular Day

BoredToday, I just got fed up with all of these nebulizer treatments, but I did them anyway. I’ve been thinking about portraying what a normal day in my life looks like since I “get to stay home and hope people send me money,” which is an old line Beautiful used to say when I was just starting the home business. It’s a bit more than that now, but I suppose it still rings somewhat true, only further into the future rather than hoping they send money that day.

I looked up at the DVR machine this morning and it was 10:12am. I had made Beautiful’s lunch and made my omelet to down my huge breakfast and sent her out the door packing around 7am. After taking care of client work that didn’t get done last night when I passed out on the couch from a long day’s work, I started my nebs.

Everything is pretty organized now, so it is just a matter of making a stop at the fridge, the counter, and opening a cabinet door and coming back to the couch. This month, I’m on everything, so my routine includes Albuterol, Pulmozyme, Cayston, Colistin, and 7% saline. It’s a heck of a run, but I am ever so thankful that I don’t have a compressor and can do them all in my Trio and Altera in about 15-20 minutes if I don’t get distracted when one finishes. It’s really easy to put the neb down and just keep working in my line of work. If it weren’t for that technology, I’d be staring at 2.5 hours of nebs twice a day and an hour at another time and I would surely not be as compliant as I am.

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Fatboy’s Nebulizer Life

Inhaled MedsOwing directly to my eFlow nebulizers (Why you NEED an eFlow a.k.a. Trio and Altera), there is no way I would be able to function with all of my responsibilities without being able to do speedy breathing treatments. They allow me to break down a dose into 90 seconds to 3 minutes, depending on the med and how much is in the vial. Look how darn portable they are, too!

Here is a run-down of what is in the photo, why I take it, when, and etc.

Left side from the back

Advair Diskus 500/50 – a steroidal control bronchodilator med that I take twice a day. It’s a dry powder that gets sucked in when a blister inside pops.

Albuterol – my first dose I take with my Trio in the long chain of meds. It’s, of course, a long-time friend of CFers and asthma patients as a bronchodilator. Twice a day again.

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