cycling,cycling,cycling?

billy02 · #1 02-12-2009, 06:46 AM

When my husband watches my son Billy he seems to cycle,cycle, cycle. There are times it gets to him because he can't get Billy to stop. There are times he yells at him like a regurlar child. I don't know if that's good or bad? Any tips on how he should handle this before he gets to upset? We have a 3 year old in the next room and we've been lucky that that hasn't woken up because of it. But as our other son get's older he will be more aware of it, what can you do?

Mom2TwinsPlus1 · #2 02-12-2009, 07:06 AM

We were told cylcling meant a problem with the vent, not the child. Is their a ton of water in the lines? Have you checked to make sure the alarms are connected correctly? I know if ours are just the slightest bit lose where they connect into the vent we will cycle.

If you can't figure it out I would contact your DME or your Dr and ask what to do. I know ours also did that when our sensitivity was set too high.

billy02 · #3 02-12-2009, 07:47 AM

We do all that, but sometimes it just doesn't help. Thanks for the tip thou, I'll keep that in mind. Thank you

Caty · #4 02-12-2009, 10:58 AM

Nate's vent will autocycle if the trach is moved just the tiniest bit. Adjusting him helps. And sometimes air temp around the vent will make it autocycle, i.e., Nate's been close to the fireplace and then we go to his room where it's much cooler. Nate's vent seems to autocycle all the time and we have sensitivity turned off! Our DME called the manufacturer and they kind of suggested I must be making this stuff up because it shouldn't autocycle so much but our DME RT backed me up. There's no rhyme or reason-I guess Nate has a weird effect on machines.

I hope you can figure something out for the family sanity.

Ann · #5 02-12-2009, 03:50 PM

If the issue is not water in the circuits, then it's likely autocycling due to your son's airleak around his trach. You can try turning up the sensitivity on the vent (I'll go up to "5" on Jack's vent if necessary) or if your son doesn't already have one, he may need a cuffed trach. If he has a cuffed trach, you made need to inflate the cuff more.

Jacob's Mom · #6 02-12-2009, 04:08 PM

I agree with turning up the sensitivity. We had to play around with that and positioning to prevent from having to switch to a cuffed trach.

Mom2TwinsPlus1 · #7 02-12-2009, 05:34 PM

That's right ours did it when our sensitivity was too low not to high, its been so long I forgot. We had to get orders to change it from 1 to 2.

I am glad Ann responsed the way she did, I didn't know a leak could do it too. Will have to watch for that since we have a pretty big leak

Ann · #8 02-12-2009, 05:45 PM

With regard to increasing the sensitivity on the vent, keep in mind that if you increase the sensitivity, it's harder for your child to trigger the vent with his/her own breath. Jack freaks out a little when I go up on the sensitivity because he has such shallow breaths that it's difficult to trigger the vent to begin with. I usually wait until he is asleep before I up the sensitivity and then I turn it down in the morning when he wakes up. Jack's awake sensitivity is set at 3.

kshell · #9 02-12-2009, 06:31 PM

I agree to try to turn up the sensitivity, but I would only try to go up one to start.

Mom2TwinsPlus1 · #10 02-12-2009, 07:05 PM

I am not sure how some vent programs work, but just a thought you might check with your dr before you change it. We are not allowed to make any changes to our vent on our own, including sensitivity it has to be approved and sent to our DME before we can change anything