When visiting my health care centre on Monday because of bronchitis and asthma trouble, as part of the examination I was introduced to a Nebulizer .(Swedish: Nebulisator) It was new to me, so afterwards I looked it up to learn its name and a bit more about it.
Nebulizers are used for the treatment of asthma and other respiratory diseases.
Nebulizers use oxygen, compressed air or ultrasonic power to break up medical solutions and suspensions into small aerosol droplets that can be directly inhaled from the mouthpiece of the device. The definition of an aerosol is a "mixture of gas and liquid particles," and the best example of a naturally-occurring aerosol is mist, formed when small vaporized water particles mixed with hot ambient air are cooled down and condense into a fine cloud of visible airborne water droplets.
The first "powered" or pressurized inhaler was invented in France in 1858. This device used pressure to atomize the liquid medication. The pump handle was operated like a bicycle pump.
In 1864, the first steam-driven nebulizer was invented in Germany. The Siegle steam spray inhaler consisted of a spirit burner, which boiled water in the reservoir into steam that could then flow across the top and into a tube suspended in the pharmaceutical solution. The passage of steam drew the medicine into the vapor, and the patient inhaled this vapor through a mouthpiece made of glass.
The first electrical nebulizer was invented in the 1930s, but many people in the 1930s continued to use a much more simple and cheap hand-driven one.
Exactly what kind of electrical nebulizer it was that I used now, I don’t know. The picture is from the Wikipedia article. The one I used looked similar but not the exact same shape.
Anyway (for those of you who did not read my previous posts this week) it was a test treatment to see how well I responded to cortisone. Afterwards I was prescribed a short cortisone tablet cure to help me through the present problems (my regular everyday treatment with dry powder inhalers having proved not quite sufficient in connection with a bad cold last week)
Sorry if I seem a little obsessed by my own respiration and not much else just now… But breathing is rather essential for the rest of life, you know! ;)
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well i am glad you don't have to use that steam powered one. can't imagine that. you probably can't think of anything else, trapped in the house, feeling bad, can't BREATHE, you just keep posting, we will be hear to see you feel and I hope you feel better moment by momnet.
ReplyDeleteWell, yes, we never even think about our breathing till we have problems with it. Then it is the most important thing in the world! And it REALLY is...
ReplyDeleteWhat a great word for N day, I never would have thought of it. However, I hope you are soon feeling better, and also thanks for the history lesson.
ReplyDeleteI'd be more than a bit obsessive about something that kept me breathing, I think. Interesting that nebulizers have been around for so long. Hope you are responding well to your treatment.
ReplyDeleteOur Uncle used a nebuliser so I'm well acquainted with that particular piece of equipment. I'm sorry that you've had to use one though. I hope that your present issues are over quickly.
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