Saline nebs: Anyone else using them... - Asthma Community ...

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Saline nebs

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Anyone else using them ?

Hossie asthma nurse recommended them to help shift mucus plugs and gunk !

Least the ones gps has given me are only 2.5ml not those massive 5ml things the hossie give me !

Also is it best to do saline on its own or can you mix it with bricanyl and atrovent, as when in hossie various nurses said different things !

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I think it sort of depends why you use them, i mix however i take them so that less of the residual is bricanyl at the bottom of the boule. However from what i've read, a lot of people use them alone to shift gunk.

I know the mixing isnt that relevant, just thought i'd offer an explanation as the why the nurses m,ay have said that!

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KateMoss

Hi wheezer,

I use them to shift gunk on their own - sometimes following a ventolin neb ( swills out the end residue of the ventolin)

I don't mix them at all.

Some people are advised to mix with the drugs to dilute them.

They make me cough which occasionally can make me sick! Yuck!

Kate

Im meant to be using em to shift the gunk and plugs so I guess using em on their own after the others would be best till I get specific instructions to do otherwise lol

Hello,

I use Hypertonic Saline alot stronger than bog standard stuff. Normal Saline is 0.9% I think and hypertonic saline is 7%.

Hi Wheezer!

Welcome to the Saline Neb crew!

Couldn't live without them.

I haven't wanted to post here for ages, but this was a must for me to reply to.

I use saline religiously 4 times a day after my religious 4 times a day prophylactic nebbing sessions of a Vent plus Atro neb.

You are right, they do shift the gunk if you use them correctly.

I was always taught to wait half an hour after the Vent neb, so airways are open, and inhale them on their own, then have a coughing up session. You will be surprised what you can shift, and yes you may throw up, good thing for lungs though if you shift more gunk. And hang head low, sort of Postural Drainage so gravity helps and you don't rupture anything coughing- a steamy shower is good for this. I find I get so much worse in hospital because I can't get that steamy shower I need!

Also if you have a sinus problem or infection, inhale the saline through the mask with your mouth shut, so your nose gets the dose. Them have a good blow. Wonderful stuff. If you haven't got a stack of saline nebs, or the time!, try a saline spray like Sterimar for your nose.

I have mild bronch too so saline is a must for me to keep gunk out and infections away. Takesmybreathaway mentioned the Isotonic/ Hypertonic (not sure which word is correct!) 7% saline...that is usually only for CF sufferers and generally considered too strong for asthmatics as it can upset the airways and send them into spasm.

Yes those hospital saline pods are enormous....get the 2.5 ml ones, although of all my meds they are the hardest to get and the pharmacist always has to order them in- can you believe it!

Sus xx

lol Sus lol

This is gonna sound horrible but can saline nebs be used with nasal prongs on my neb for my sinus's do you think?

Special adapter!

GP I saw has put the saline nebs on repeat for me (x100) at a time!

Hmmm I did wait a few mins last night between and yuck did I chist some gunk lol

Hmmmm least the 2.5ml ones dont take long in my little ultrasonic desktop neb lol

I use them to help with physio too.

If i have an infection an am on regular preventative nebs i'm told to mix with ventolin but not atrovent and if it's hot weather and have sticky mucus i'm to regularly neb just saline (and drink loads of water) If it's a normal brittle crash then don't use them just use ventolin and atrovent and if i'm having normal asthma preventative nebs but no sticky gunk just bubbles (excuse me while i just ask my lungs whether they're sticky, gunky or bubbly today) i'm not to use them.

Confusing or WHAT! so I think it might be best if you do what your dr's tell you cos everybody's different and some peoples cons are less mad than others!

hello,

The Hypertonic saline has shown good results in both CF patients and asthmatics. Its usually only prescribed though in the specialist hospitals as it doesn't yet have a pharmaceutical company that makes it yet and it has to be mixed in the hospital pharmacies. The research with asthmatics has shown very promising results and at my hospital my doctor prescribes it to alot of his 400 patients.

tks xxxxxx

KateMoss profile image
KateMoss

Hi Sus,

thanks for the useful info!

Will now try to leave half an hour after ventolin before trying the saline.

does it still make you puke?

Thank goodness I put bags in my bedroom bin! LOL!

Anyway,

Take care

Kate

XXX

Sus

Leaving time between em is definitely working on rubbish!

But do you ever find that you get more tight etc after the saline?

Hi Wheezer,

Just saw your post and thought I should say well done for de gunking a bit!

If I get tight after saline nebs it is because I have coughed so much that I have spasmed my airways, which does happen to me, like a slightly forced asthma attack I think.

That is also the reason that asthmatics are generally not given the 7% saline as it can make our airways too twitchy.

Just go slowly and carefully and don't over do it if you do hyper react a bit. Personally I really bow dow to the stuff, and it isn't even a drug, just nature after all, I think the added moisture helps as much as anything else, and always give my lungs a bit of it when I am doing the 'no meds' torture before lung function!

Sus xx

Hi

I am on the 7% 5ml pr day but rather than nebbing the 5ml in one go I spoke to con and he agreed that spliting the does to 2.5 ml in a morning a good hr before going to work, and the other half in th evening, that way my gunk is cleared up from the over night green monsters that live in my lungs ( this seams to have helped me at work as before I was coughing up gunk at work quite a bit) and then its cleared before I sleep.

I have found them to be a big help.

Just a note to Tks, thanks ( Tks under same con as I and gave me lots of good info on them before I started on mine)

Chrissi

I am on saline and find it so useful in de gunking lungs particularly when like, at the moment I have a chest infection and/or cold. I usually wait for a few minutes after after ventolin neb.

I am prescribed it once a day in the evening when well and as required when not well. There was on the BBC website today an interesting research article on the use of hypertonic saline in CF users but I can't remember the link for it.

Wanda

Heres the link on the bbc about the hypertonic saline and CF!

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/...

Thanks Wheezer!

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