Pulmonary Toileting

There is a white board in Shirley's room that shows her Nurse and Doctor's name, family contact info, etc.  It also has a section for Today's Goals.  Among those for today is Pulmonary Toileting.  What you ask?  This is the process of breathing deeply to make sure the CO2 leaves her lungs and coughing to bring up any mucus that may be accumulating.

She has two devices to help her with these efforts.  One is called an inspirometer (aka "incentive deep breathing exerciser").   It has a mouthpiece connected to a foot-long flexible tube which enters a small plastic chamber.  There is a clear cylinder with a float in it.  When she breathes into the tube, the goal is to keep the float near the top of the chamber as long as possible.

The second device is called a flutter valve.  It looks like a giant kosher pickle (yes it's green) with a mouthpiece at one end and a filtered exhaust port at the other.  When she blows into it, it makes a fluttering sound.  I don't know how this thing works, but apparently it helps break us the junk accumulating in your lungs.  After using this, Shirley tries to cough.

Shirley is about to get out of bed to go for her second walk. This is still major undertaking.  She has a walking onto which she rests her arms, but it also serves as the holder for the collectors for four check tubes and her catheter (which is to come out later today).  She also has two rolling IV stands that she is hooked in to.  They removed the IV in her neck earlier today and one of her other IV lines is starting to close up, so tomorrow they are putting in a PICC line.  This should make administering IV meds easier.

BTW, for those of you who know Shirley's obsession with Diet Pepsi, she was cleared today to have some. Unfortunately, this is a Coke hospital, so I had to drive around and find a soda fountain with Diet Pepsi this morning.