Passy-Muir speaking valve and AeroTrach Chamber I use a Passy-Muir speaking valve with my trach. It has a diaphragm which acts as a one-way valve. (The clear plastic clip is to attach an oxygen hose.) I breathe in through the trach and then the diaphragm closes when I breathe out so the air goes past my vocal chords and out my mouth and nose. If I am not careful to clean the valve every day it can give a "honking" sound like a duck call. That has happened sometimes at church or at meetings at work. (Awkward!) Sometimes there is a faint "buzz" from the valve diaphragm when I speak. Janny says "Dad your voice has a kazoo quality." But in general it gives me a good clear voice.
I have an AeroTrach chamber that I use to inhale medication through my trach. If I breathe too quickly it makes a sound like a flute. The one I had before had symbol on it of a musical note with a circle around it and a diagonal stroke. The signal means you are breathing too quickly. When Janny hears the flute sound while I take my medicine she yells "Dad it is not a musical instrument!" It makes different notes depending how I breathe so I call it my "trach flute."
So at present the duck call, the kazoo, and the trach flute are the extent of my musical repertoire.
2 comments:
You forgot to mention the part where you purposely make the flute noise all the time to get attention! It's like how you sometimes make your ventilator alarm go off in order to say "Hello".
Maybe you can play the flute but can you play the harmonica? Tanya says hello.
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