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  • Learning The Advantages of My New Cough Assist

    Posted by michael-morale on December 4, 2018 at 1:40 pm

    When I first went to my pulmonologist a few months ago, I spoke to him about getting a cough assist. After battling with my insurance company for just over a month, I finally received my new Phillips Respironics T70 Cough Assist machine. I was told by my doctor’s respiratory therapist to make an appointment with them once I received my new machine. This morning, I took my cough assist with me and met with my respiratory therapist so that we could go over all of the settings. Even though I received some training from the technician who brought the machine to my house, my pulmonologist’s respiratory therapist gave me some valuable advice on how to use the machine. After setting different levels of the inhale and exhale feature, we decided on the proper settings that gave me beneficial results.

    For those of you with SMA that do not have a cough assist, I highly recommend getting one because a few of my friends here on the SMA News Today forum told me how beneficial their cough assist has been, and I’m finding out for myself that these benefits could keep me out of the hospital.

    My respiratory therapist wants me to do 2 breathing treatments per day. She told me not to use the cough assist unless I needed to, because their primary goal right now is to expand my lungs and to open all of the bronchial tubes that have not been able to open as much as they should have. After doing a few treatments in my therapist’s office, I feel that I’m able to take a deeper breath and I can tell a difference in my energy level as well. She told me that if I ever start feeling congested or feel like I have something in my lungs that needs to come up, I can use the cough assist when it’s needed.

    If you are using a cough assist, how many times per day do you use the inhale portion only? How many times per day do you go through your treatments?

    halsey-blocher replied 5 years, 3 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
  • 1 Reply
  • halsey-blocher

    Member
    December 5, 2018 at 9:22 pm

    I’ve never used just the inhale on mine. I use it regularly three times a day and whenever I feel like I need it. It makes a big difference in my breathing!

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