Respiratory Treatments

💡TL;DR: Most nebulizer treatments take about 5–15 minutes, with many finishing near 10 minutes. Faster devices (vibrating mesh) and smaller volumes finish sooner; larger fills and older jet compressors can run longer. Medication matters: bronchodilators often run 5–10 minutes, while 4 mL hypertonic saline can take closer

💡TL;DR: For most coughs, start with sterile normal saline (0.9%) in your nebulizer; it hydrates airways and helps loosen mucus with minimal risk. For thick phlegm, hypertonic saline by TruNeb (3% or 7%) can thin secretions but may briefly increase coughing; ask your clinician if you have asthma

💡TL;DR: A mucus plug is a thick mucus blockage that can obstruct an airway and cause part of the lung to collapse. Most plugs clear with a layered approach: hydration, bronchodilator if prescribed, postural drainage, and controlled or huff coughing; severe or stuck plugs may require bronchoscopy. In COPD,

💡TL;DR: Orange or rust-colored phlegm usually means a small amount of dried blood in your mucus, most often from infection or irritation (for example, sinusitis, bronchitis, or a minor nosebleed). Color alone doesn’t diagnose the cause—track other symptoms and how you feel over 3–5 days. Rusty

💡TL;DR: Medications do not cure BPD; they help babies breathe and grow while the lungs heal. Care often combines oxygen/respiratory support with diuretics, bronchodilators, cautious short courses of corticosteroids in select severe cases, and caffeine citrate to reduce apnea. Diuretics and bronchodilators can improve short‑term breathing but

💡TL;DR: Hot cars can reach 140–160°F (60–71°C), far above safe storage for inhalers. Pressurized MDIs can weaken or even burst around ~120°F (49°C); all inhaler types work best at 68–77°F (20–25°C). If an inhaler overheats, treat it as unreliable

💡TL;DR: Prime new metered-dose inhalers (MDIs) with 2–4 test sprays and re-prime after about 1–2 weeks of no use or if dropped so the first dose contains medication. Skipping priming can make the first puff mostly propellant with little or no medicine. Dry powder inhalers (Diskus, Ellipta)

💡TL;DR: Yes, you can vest during Pulmozyme to save time, and many CF clinics allow it; optimal: take Pulmozyme first and start airway clearance about 20–30 minutes later. A typical regimen is bronchodilator → hypertonic saline → Pulmozyme → airway clearance, with inhaled antibiotics last. Pulmozyme is usually 2.5 mg

💡TL;DR: Most MDIs keep spraying propellant even when the medicine is gone, so you can’t tell by sight, sound, taste, or shaking. Check a built‑in dose counter (zero means empty) or track your puffs: many rescue inhalers have 200 doses and many controllers have 120. Replace before