Countries with no vest

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 9/24/2003 6:19:27 AM Central Daylight Time,

JBEarle@... writes:

In any case, despite the vest, Shaelin is sick and coughing for the

first time, so it is no miracle! Over the past week he has been seen

by the pediatrian and was started on Ceftin, was seen by his Nurse

Practitioner and has an appointment tomorrow with his pulmonologist.

I think he will either be back on TOBI or need to be hospitalized for

a clean-out as this is his third consecutive month on antibiotics.

Jeanne (foster Mom to Shaelin, 2 1/2wcf)

I would never say that the vest is a miracle it is used to ease things for

you and you child. I think my girls sit to do the vest a lot better then they

did for me. And how do you know he might have gotten sick without you using the

vest. I wouldn't put the vest down! No, my girls have not been free of

bacteria but I can tell you they do not sound phlegmy. When our machine was

broken I

could tell right away that morning that the phlegm was back. I would say I

would give it chance WE LOVE IT!! OF coarse we have two girls with CF and it has

taken a lot of stress off of us!! Just my opinion. Deb A

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone,

I apologize for my insensitivity to those who do not have access to

the vest. We are only in our trial phase and I had just wanted to

share how well it is working. I have been consistently doing CPT

2x/day but on a 2 year old I always questioned whether I was getting

every lung field, clapping hard enough (but not too hard), and

keeping Shaelin in any one position for any length of time was always

a struggle. I also felt I was the only one who was really giving him

his therapy correctly. My husband was always concerned about hurting

him and I always had to remind him that he had to " pound him "

harder. Shaelin would frequently manage to get away from him so he

would give up and I would have to take over.

In any case, despite the vest, Shaelin is sick and coughing for the

first time, so it is no miracle! Over the past week he has been seen

by the pediatrian and was started on Ceftin, was seen by his Nurse

Practitioner and has an appointment tomorrow with his pulmonologist.

I think he will either be back on TOBI or need to be hospitalized for

a clean-out as this is his third consecutive month on antibiotics.

Jeanne (foster Mom to Shaelin, 2 1/2wcf)

[Guest guest]

Hi Jeanne;

No offense taken - I didn't think you were being insensitive. I know it is

hard to imagaine the long term commitment of manual therapy.

I hope Shaelin will be feeling better soon. I wonder if the coughing has

anything to do with the vest being effective enough to loosen mucous that

has been stuck in the airways for awhile. I think I remember Randy

responding to someone else about this awhile back - that sometimes increased

coughing can be the intial response to the vest.

Anyways, between the vest and the meds, things will hopefully be under

control soon.

It is not uncommon for people with CF to need to be on antibiotics on a

continual basis. We have found this necessary with our son and YES, it still

concerns me. Unfortunately, trial periods off the antibiotics always led to

him building up to an uncontrollable cough in a short time so we agreed with

the doctor that it was the better of two evil alternatives to stay on the

antibiotics than to go through the periods of illness. When I recently asked

how many of the 500+ patients at our clinic were on antibiotics chronically,

I was told that almost ALL of them (either oral or inhaled versions). It

seems more common in the U.S. to have patients on and off the antibiotics

even if the off period is only a few short weeks. There is always the

concern that frequent on and off can give the bacteria a better chance to

build up resistance. I wish there was more definitive research on this!

M