Obese children with asthma need more Steroids

Obese children need more corticosteroids then these children do according to this study.
Obese children with asthma require more steroids.

This goes well with I do you said to people lost more weight would spend less time because our country is at an all time high score obesity.

Ondine's Curse - Rare form of sleep apenea

So I happened upon this Wikipedia article about Ondine's Curse, also called congenital central hypoventilation syndrome (CCHS) which is a respiratory disorder that is fatal if untreated due to the person with he curse having a respiratory arrest while sleeping.  This is a central sleep apnea which is congenital by nature but can occur from a head injury, this can occur in 1 in 200,000 people born so it is quite rare, according the information in 2006 there were only 200 known cases at the time in the USA.  What I overall understand about OnDine's Curse is that basically you body loses the involuntary ability to breathe so you only can breathe when conscious and most people to survive get a tracheotomy and use a ventilator at night to breathe.

Here is a article about a girl who has this issue, it's interesting.

As respiratory therapist I figured this would be something interesting to find out about and just have a background knowledge of to make us better in our jobs even though the odds are against us at dealing with a patient with Odine's Curse, but it's always better to learn something new.

Caffeine to help asthmatics.

Here is a interesting on the effect of caffeine and people with asthma.  It's actually a positive effect as caffeine is found in this study to have a bronchodialation affect on people with bronchoconstriction.  My conclusion, if you have respiratory issues drink tea or coffee on a consistent basis for maintenance it could work.  Wonder though if your having an attack if you could down a Mountain Dew quick to get some relief?

Here is the link to the study: Caffeine helps Asthmatics.

PTSD and Respiratory Illnesses

New article showing a correlation of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and respiratory illnesses.  The information found in this article was mainly a result of studying people who were around the World Trade Center when 9/11 happened.

WTC Responders' PTSD Linked To Respiratory Illness

Interesting how is shows Psychological issued can cause physical issues.

Oxygen Protocols

Where I currently work we are looking to implement a better Oxygen protocol where the RT's are more involved/informed about major changes to a patients oxygen use, for example a patient is on 2L nasal cannula and is increased to a non re-breather mask we want to be informed.

So what I'm looking for is if anyone reading this could send me a basic idea of what your O2 protocols are your respective hospital or any ideas you could send my way.  I have used protocols at prior workplaces and some I like but just want to see what else is out there for use to improve our care and possibly decrease the length of time a patient might be on oxygen.

Anti Snoring stuffed bear.

Stuffed bear lightly smacks you in the face if your snoring to get you to turn your head along with a smaller bear to monitor your Spo2 levels.  Not sure if this will take away CPAP machines but a novel idea.  This does look much more comfortable for people with very mild sleep apnea.

Anti Snoring Bear with video

Handheld computers for RT's?

Just a quick post here, my department is looking for some type of handheld computer we can use for charting and scanning of medications, if anyone has any recommendations I would love to hear them and possible a website where I could get the company information about them also.

We use the Meditech system for charting and eMAR.

Thanks for any information