Good Morning!!

[Carleendiane]

Good morning ches. Hopefully your day will be busy enough to keep you from watching the clock, counting down the hours. Friday probably can't come soon enough. It's a beautiful day here.

[dymphna17]

Your vent has a circuit, Ches?  I thought they were all connected to a machine that hung on a pole and plugged into an outlet in the wall.  This must give you more autonomy, right?

The vent circuit is the tubing that connects the ventilator to the trach,  as well as other stuff like speaking valves, inline suction etc.  at home i have 2 ventilators,one is on the pole next to my bed,and the other one is mounted to my chair and runs on a rechargable battery.  or youcan plug it into the wheelchair itself and it will charge

here,i use the hospital vnt while in bed and use my own vent mounted to my chair.  going back and forth between different types of vents is weird though.  it has its own way of "breathing" for you so even if the mode is comparable,it isnt 100% the same

Wow!  That would be really weird.  To have to mentally adjust from one to the other, would be a pain, much less the body, I would think.  Sorry to keep peppering you with questions, but I really would like to understand.  Does the vent breath for you 24/7 or does it just kick in if you are having difficulty?

When I first got my trach in November, iwas in the ICU for a coupleof days and the vent was doing all the work but i think it is because surgery takes so much out of me.  Then I was able to get off the vent for a few hours during the day, and most of the time I was hooked up to it, it was only in pressure support mode which is similarto bipap. what happens is,you initiate the breaths,but it ensures that youre taking enough air in,and  what it can do is supplement the work of breathing that your body is already doing.     but as time has gone on,ihave had to spend more time using volume controlled modes too.  at this point, I can't go off the vent and require some degree of respiratory support 24/7.

theychange my vent settings on a regular basis because with progressive illness,your needs are always changing.  one day you can doit the next day, youcant.  fighting the vent becomes less of an issue when the muscles stop working.  most of the time, it just does its thing and i am doing less and less of the work

it can sense ifyou're initiating a breath,and it will deliver a breath at that time, and makesure it is a full breath, 15 breaths per minute  so if youre not initiating all those breaths it will make sureyou're getting them.  it also has a "sigh" feature which will make the vent "sigh" at random times.  apparentlythis has benefits because your lungs overinflateor something like that.  soevery so often, the vent will "sigh" which is weird...i'll sit there like..."what wasthat??"

or i'll be talking and all of thesudden, I have to wait for it to finish what it's doing

sighing is something people do a lot when they're frustrated, bored, stressed, or sad...  so it's kind of weird when it's "automatic"

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.  I have to say, this is fascinating.  The strides that have been made in medicine to give people a quality of life is nothing short of miraculous.  They have machines that will be muscles for you when yours no longer act as such.  And the vent doesn't force or manipulate your muscles to work, it does the work of the muscles for you.  Or if it senses your muscles attempting to do the job themselves, it will only kick in if they can't.  That is nothing short of amazing.

To be honest with you, Ches, for a variety of reasons, I have found myself questioning whether it was always a good idea to "save" everyone using modern medicine, or not.  But from the little I know about you, and the methods being utilized to keep you going, I'm really glad they are there.

[Carleendiane]

I too am happy that our Ches has the best of health Care. He is so special to me. You hear me, CHES?????? And when the mind is so here to have ways to speak or type, communicate well that's such a sweet thing. Glad you were not born 20 years earlier, Ches. And awfully glad you were born here and not the Netherlands.

[Carleendiane]

So, they did NOT give me my ribs. Doc said that's up to pathology. Bummer. Was going to post a pic.

[dymphna17]

So, they did NOT give me my ribs. Doc said that's up to pathology. Bummer. Was going to post a pic.

Here, let me get that for you.  I'm willing to bet they were something like this.  Minus the sauce, of course.       

[PerEvangelicaDicta]

LOL!!!!!!!!

[Carleendiane]

So, they did NOT give me my ribs. Doc said that's up to pathology. Bummer. Was going to post a pic.

Here, let me get that for you.  I'm willing to bet they were something like this.  Minus the sauce, of course.       


[/quote

Leave it to you to go right over the top with this! 

[Lydia Purpuraria]

So, they did NOT give me my ribs. Doc said that's up to pathology. Bummer. Was going to post a pic.

Maybe you've already said it and I missed it, but which ribs did they take out? 

[Bernadette]

So, they did NOT give me my ribs. Doc said that's up to pathology. Bummer. Was going to post a pic.

They didn't give me my wisdom teeth, either. Kind of disappointed me, honestly.

[Carleendiane]

So, they did NOT give me my ribs. Doc said that's up to pathology. Bummer. Was going to post a pic.

Maybe you've already said it and I missed it, but which ribs did they take out?

The ribs were my top and next one down. My brother wanted a cross made with them! He will be so dissapointed!

[dymphna17]

So, they did NOT give me my ribs. Doc said that's up to pathology. Bummer. Was going to post a pic.

They didn't give me my wisdom teeth, either. Kind of disappointed me, honestly.

It's probably just as well, Bernadette.  It seems he was kind of a jerk tooth anyway.   

[Lydia Purpuraria]

So, they did NOT give me my ribs. Doc said that's up to pathology. Bummer. Was going to post a pic.

Maybe you've already said it and I missed it, but which ribs did they take out?

The ribs were my top and next one down. My brother wanted a cross made with them! He will be so dissapointed!

  Ouch, Carleen.  I bet you are in some serious pain -- was thinking about that last night after I got off of here.  So are they just leaving that space open, then?

[Carleendiane]

So, they did NOT give me my ribs. Doc said that's up to pathology. Bummer. Was going to post a pic.

They didn't give me my wisdom teeth, either. Kind of disappointed me, honestly.

Oh bird, that is just bad business! Really, unless your tooth was taken out in pieces.

[Bernadette]

So, they did NOT give me my ribs. Doc said that's up to pathology. Bummer. Was going to post a pic.

They didn't give me my wisdom teeth, either. Kind of disappointed me, honestly.

Oh bird, that is just bad business! Really, unless your tooth was taken out in pieces.

IKR? It would have been so fascinating, to be able to hold and inspect one that didn't get pushed out by other teeth. 

[Lydia Purpuraria]

So, they did NOT give me my ribs. Doc said that's up to pathology. Bummer. Was going to post a pic.

They didn't give me my wisdom teeth, either. Kind of disappointed me, honestly.

Oh bird, that is just bad business! Really, unless your tooth was taken out in pieces.

IKR? It would have been so fascinating, to be able to hold and inspect one that didn't get pushed out by other teeth. 

They did show them to you though, right?  They reminded me of walrus tusks.