sade082

Bronchiolitis is a condition common in children that have symptoms very similar to asthma, and is most common between November and April. These patients usually present to the emergency room with symptoms such as nasal flaring, retractions, grunting, wheezing, coarse inspiratory crackles, increased secretions, nasal stuffiness and congestion, cyanosis, hypoxia, increased heart rate, noisy breathing,  increased respiratory rate, irritability, and refusing to breast feed. They often commonly present with otitis media. It's more common in children because their airways are smaller and more susceptible to narrowing. Usually it occurs within the first two years, with it's peak at 3-6 months.This condition presents nearly identical with asthma, and is often treated or misdiagnosed as such. The best way to diagnose it is with a nasal swab. The most common causative agent is the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), although it may also be caused by adenovirus, enterovirus, influenza, and...

This post was originally published on January 29, 2008. It is part of the classics of the RT Cave collection. While some of this is outdated, most of it is not. So, in our quest to become more well rounded therapists, we must now look into another common condition, a condition that is the leading cause of death in critical care units. For starters, we need to know that is is the leading cause of death in critical care units. Of the 750,000 patients it effects every year, 250,000 will die. These statistics cannot, and are not, being ignored. Hospitals continue to work overtime to create guidelines to help caregivers both recognize and diagnose sepsis so those who have it can get the treatment they need. Likewise, efforts can be made to recognize who is at risk for developing sepsis so it can be prevented. These statistics have gone pretty much unchanged since the early 1980s. So, even with modern knowledge and technology, hospitals have been unable to break this trend. Yet they are,...

This post was originally published on January 29, 2008. It is part of the classics of the RT Cave collection. While some of this is outdated, most of it is not. So, in our quest to become more well rounded therapists, we must now look into another common condition, a condition that is the leading cause of death in critical care units. For starters, we need to know that is is the leading cause of death in critical care units. Of the 750,000 patients it effects every year, 250,000 will die. These statistics cannot, and are not, being ignored. Hospitals continue to work overtime to create guidelines to help caregivers both recognize and diagnose sepsis so those who have it can get the treatment they need. Likewise, efforts can be made to recognize who is at risk for developing sepsis so it can be prevented. These statistics have gone pretty much unchanged since the early 1980s. So, even with modern knowledge and technology, hospitals have been unable to break this trend. Yet they are,...

Classics of the RT Cave. This post was originally published March 18, 2008. First off, I worked a bunch of years in the hospital setting before I had a clue what DIC was. I had observed the symptoms many times. I remember many patients, most of them on ventilators, who seemed to be seeping fluid from their pores. Yet I heeded this condition little attention, mainly because I was a newer RT who was intently focused on getting my own work done. Then one day I remember one of our senior therapists told me in report she told the nurses to keep a particular close watch on this trauma patient because he was at high risk for DIC and ARDS. It later turned out she was right, and the patient developed both ARDS and DIC. So, it did not pass me by how this senior was correct in her prediction. I was curious to know what she knew. So I asked her, and she said, "Do some research on DIC, and then get back to me. Do a Google search." She paused, then added, "I think that all therapists ...

So I need to make a few comments about this blog. First, as you may have observed, there are no longer ads on it. This is because Goodle Adsense fired me. They will not tell me what I did, which is unfortunate. I was actually getting to the point I was making about $100 every 2-3 months, so it's not like I was getting rich off ads. And I wrote on this blog many years before I ever put ads on here, so it's not like I need the money as an incentive to write. Still, I am also at a point in my life where I was seriously considering donating what I made on this blog to some respiratory charity. But that idea is gone now. It's not a big deal, but it still kind of stinks. So that pretty much means this entire blog is a charity. Another change made here is that I will no longer submit posts on this blog about myself. I actually made this change quite a few years ago, and some of you have already discovered by asthma blog, " Hardluck Asthma ." I actually started writing th...