Question on LTV 950 vent

[Jimmysmom]

Hi

When we have problems with Jimmy's leak we get low min vol. alarms as he is on a rate of 20 at night with a vol of 140. Some nights seem better then others. We started having sleep on a pillow and that seems to help but then other nights I'm doing a moving his circuit around until I can get the vol. up some. Its not that he's not getting the vol. it just what is being measured coming back out.

I'd like to hear what some other people had to say but we've never had a leak problem and have the vent alarm disc/scense. Even when Jimmy is awake and he's on pressure support and he moves his trach around we always get a low min. vol. alarm.

We have had problems here recently with the power lost alarm going off, when power hasn't been lost. We finally figuered out that it was in the power pack and we have a new one on the way.

Take care

Anne, mom to Jimmy (3) Infantile Axonal Neuropathy, trach, vent dependent, g-tube

[Shari]

Sorry about the delay in answering, I've been without my computer. When Jacob's leak made alarms go off, I've always gotten a low min vol alarm, but he is on pressure control not volume control. I've also had this exact alarm that your describing when a small bubble of water was in the small sensor line or if the sensor line was a little loose. Have you tried blowing your lines out with oxygen? If you have a leak, there are things that you can do besides upsize the trach. I've been battling that for a few months, too. If your interested, I have some contacts at the vent company that may be able to help. And, I've had the same problem as you with my vent company not knowing much about this vent.
-Shari

[christyw]

Gaithy has a really large leak, and several weeks back we had the same type of problem with the alarming, and the VTE's being around 0. The LAST thing I want is to upsize her trach, so I never consulted the docs about that (but it wasn't a probelm that persisted either). I just kept repositioning her until it stopped, but that only happened a couple of nights, and since then she's been fine, so she must've just been in a strange position on those nights - I'm not sure.

christy

[magnus'mom]

your disc/sense should not be alarming unless there is a leak or disconnect.
Have you done a leak test?
Let me know if you need to know how to do this?

[Jacob's Mom]

we have had the same problems with jacob's vent alarms. sometimes it is positional, but now i am certain that he needs a larger trach. he creates a lot more sound around the trach even without it covered. we also turned off the lmv alarm because he is on the pulse-ox and apnea monitor. his doc just put in an order for a larger trach, so we should have it changed next week. i find that putting him on a pillow causes more lmv alarms.