"Whenever I feel blue, I start breathing again." ~L. Frank Baum
I decided to torture Mariella by taking a picture during treatment time. As you can see, the Trek is sitting next to her, and she's moved on to airway clearance. As necessary as clearance is, it is just about the grossest thing in the world. That little device somehow causes enough percussion in the lungs to loosen the mucus, so that Mariella can cough and move it up and out. It's nice that I don't have to do actual chest PT on her, though when she's really bad, I do...the Acapella makes it so that I don't have to beat on her chest and back a couple times a day. She does this at least twice a day, if not more. It generally does help to keep flares at a minimum, most of them.
She is too cute, and I just want to hug her cute :D. Even with the acapella stuck in her mouth, being all "Mom, leave me alone" ;-).
ReplyDeleteawww, thanks...she is pretty cute (and if you ask her "who's cute?" she always answers "me" (I created a monster with that one)
ReplyDeleteShe's really good about it, though...She rarely complains...so that's a plus.
LOL. That's so priceless, I love it. I NEED to come to your house and do that. ;-)
ReplyDeleteShe rarely complains cause she's a smart kid and knows it'll make her feel better. I mean, yea, I hate nebbing because it's time consuming, but it HELPS hardcore, so I do it.
And I complain about it enough, I should take a page outta her book.
I totally agree, she is so cute despite annoyed at the picture being taken. But, she does seem to take it all in stride and not complain about it too much.
ReplyDeleteIs the acapella hooked up to something or is it on it's own?
It's all on it's own. It's a PEP device...and PEP is positive something pressure...she breathes in, holds it for a few seconds, then blows out. There is a flutter device inside that somehow rattles her insides too, so the mucus is loosened. Once she does it for about 5 minutes, she has to do a huff cough, which triggers a good cough spasm...and nearly always brings up stuff. Then, she does the whole cycle again.
ReplyDeletehttp://bit.ly/cGZEvl this is the link to the acapella site