Day 526 - Aerogen Breakdown, Helmet Follow-up & 1st Real Restaurant Experience

Thursday, June 9th, 2022

The day started with our new aerogen nebulizer not working properly. It wasn't clearing out after the treatment. Mom wanted to reach out to the Trach FB Group but FB would not let her post, so fortunately other Trach Mom she is friends with posted on her behalf to get answers. It turns out that sometimes you just need to run a saline treatment after the meds to clear it out. Simple fix!

We've been using this nebulizer for the past 5 days and it has been worth every out of pocket penny. At first we purchased what we thought would have been the complete Aerogen Pro Nebulizer from a medical equipment website on April 20th who sells refurbished items. Once received we realized it was missing the control cable. They apologized for false advertising and offered a refund, but we were on a mission to find this control cable. Mom found it on one website that ended up being a scam (they don't actually carry anything, fake website to just take your money); PayPal refunded after a dispute. Then we found the cable on another medical supply website but it was back ordered for 12 days. Well six weeks and $520 later we finally had all the parts! One of the Trach Moms was nice enough to donate us (4) of the 2 parts needed to connect to the humidification chamber, which is the T piece and the solo nebulizer. This probably saved us another $100. We will be changing these 2 pieces out every time we do a circuit change to wash and sterilize.

So why is the Aerogen worth it? Well prior to this James had to have an extra large piece of plastic connected in his circuit near his face called a Tee Adapter. Now that T adapter is connected directly into the humidification chamber, nowhere near him. The treatments would take anywhere from 10 to 90 minutes, in which we would need to supervise to make sure it didn't disconnect or cause James to choke. If James moved it would disconnect losing the medicine all over the bed or back down the air tubing. The air compressor needed to push the medicine through doesn't last very long. We had to purchase a new one only after a few months. They are typically $40 each. The Aerogen delivers a micromist with a much smaller particle size so more inhaled medication can get to the lungs, in less time, with less residual volume.

In the afternoon we had a follow-up helmet appointment and we received good news that the helmet is still working. James is making progress.

Afterwards we decided to take James to our favorite restaurant, Saki, which is an all you can eat, made to order, Sushi restaurant. We figured before Mom won't be able to eat sushi for a while that it was a good time to take advantage. 😉 James did really well and our waitress who didn't speak much English made James smile and laugh the whole time.

Aerogen Nebulizer

Morning Nap

Raining on the way to our appointment

First restaurant experience

P.S. You can email James your love and support as often as you’d like. Mom and Dad read these email to James as they come in. We all love them! JamesWestonAbramowitz@gmail.com