Hey guys in this week's video we're going to learn how to use one of these bad boys you might be
holding this in your hand right now and thinking how on earth do i use it well not to worry this
week's video we're going to learn how to use turbohaler we're going to learn how to store
it we're going to learn how to clean it we're going to learn loads and loads of pro tips so
let's begin now before you become a turbohaler pro it's just super important to remind you
always read the information leaflet that comes with any medication this is super important
just to make sure that you're safe and suitable to use that medication also if you have any questions
about the medication if any of this doesn't make sense at all always remember you can speak to your
pharmacist you can speak to your nurse you can speak to your doctor you can speak to any of your
healthcare professionals for more advice so please do not forget that now let's begin okay so let's
begin with the basics what is a turbohaler well a turbohaler is just a medication delivery system
it's prescribed by your healthcare professional for many different diseases for example copd
asthma and it's one of the types of inhalers that we use to get that medication to where we want it
the lungs now the turbohaler is driven by inhalation so this means it's not like your
common inhalers that you may see on tv that you click and they make that sound and it goes and
it's propelled outwards and you breathe it in the turbohaler so it's driven in by your inhalation so
by that forced breath in it actually delivers the medicine into your lung so the medicine
in a turbohaler is a dry powder and it's kept here right at the bottom there's a reservoir of
medication and it's all kept in there so unlike your mdi inhalers your metered dose inhalers
where you click it doesn't have that propellant so like i said it's driven by your inhalation
and it's really useful for patients who struggle with timing for example which you get with the
metered dose inhalers or they're struggling to click the button which does happen for patients
with arthritis for example okay so we're nearly done with the background promise we'll be going
on to how we use the turbohaler in a second but remember you're going to become a turbohaler pro
at the end of this video so one last bit this is your turbohaler i'm going to give
you a brief explanation of how it works at the bottom we have our turning grip thing
here is the air inlet i don't know if you can see that hole let's try and focus it into that hole
hopefully you can see it that is the air inlet so it's super important when you're using it
you don't block that because if you do you can't breathe in okay so you've got your air inlet there
over here you've got your reservoir of drugs inside this unfortunately i can't open it to
show you it and there's a scraper there which when we twist it it gets it into the place into
the chamber where it needs to go and then there's an air tube that goes from here all the way up
into the actual top where you breathe in that is the basics of the turbohaler but it's going to
be super important you know this because at the end of this video you are going to become that
turbohaler pro you're going to be teaching your healthcare professional about this turbohaler so
let's begin okay so we've now got to the good bit we're now going to learn how to use the turbohaler
congratulations on getting this far this part is going to be so easy for you now because we now
know all about the turbohaler we now know how it works we know about the mechanisms of how it works
inside so learning it is going to be a piece of cake but it will take a bit of trial and error i'm
not going to promise you it's going to be easy to begin with but after a while it's going to come to
you it's going to be really easy to understand and you will become the turbohaler pro okay so
let's begin now i want you to imagine you've just got a brand new turbohaler from the chemist okay
it's all in its packaging it's brand new it's nice and clean it's looking lovely okay
now this is a demonstration turbohaler so it has no drugs in it unfortunately it doesn't have the
cap thing that goes on so we're gonna imagine it has a cap and i'm going to screw it off and i'm
going to take off now we've got the turbohaler on my hand the first time you use the turbohaler
on some turbohaler you need to prime it so you need to get it ready this is why i say
it's super important that you read the information leaflet to check for this section so check on the
information leaflet what it says to do for the first time you use the turbohaler this one for
example in my hand that i've got is a symbicort one and it needs to be primed before using it and
the way that you do that for the symbicort is you turn it in one direction whichever way it
goes now you turn it back you should hear this click okay and then you do it again
okay now this inhaler is primed and ready to use okay but some other turbohaler are
different so please read the information that you flip also please do remember whenever you're
using a turbohaler always hold it upright always hold it like this never hold it like that okay
so with turbohaler we always need to hold it like this and i'm going to tell you exactly why
in a bit the other thing i want you to do before you take any dose after you've taken off the
cap always have a quick look in the hole in the mouthpiece to make sure there's no dust there's
no foreign bodies there's nothing in there okay because we're about to inhale this so it's super
important there's nothing in there because we don't want to get anything dodgy going down into
our lungs okay so now let's learn how to use the turbohaler so let's say for that previous thing
that i just did when i primed the inhaler let's say i had that dose and this is the second dose
that i'm going to take so we're going to do the same thing we're not going to do it twice we're
just going to once to get that dose ready so i'm going to turn it one way and hear that click
that means that the medication is now ready and it's in the actual chamber for you to breathe in
remember you now know about the mechanism of how this works so you understand that bar
and the reason why i say you should always hold your turbohaler upright is if this did actually
have medicine in it unfortunately it's a tester one if it actually had the powdered medication
in the chamber now and if i was to hold it like this you'd see all this powder just fall out and
that is a waste of dose okay but it's not so let's say the powder is still there and i didn't do that
next thing i'm going to do is hold it like so i'm not going to cover that bottom air inlet
which we spoke about and you know about and i'm gonna hold that so i'm gonna take a deep
breath i'm gonna take a breath in then i'm gonna breathe out and i'm gonna wrap my lips
around the mouthpiece and take a deep forceful not too forceful but it is quite forceful breath
in remember there's no propellant with this there's no gas propeller or anything like that
so your inhalation is going to take that drug in the turbohaler does require quite
a a fast-paced deep breath in and i'm going to take in the breath for as long as i can
and then afterwards i'm going to remove the of my mouth and i'll hold my breath for about 10 seconds
or as long as i can really and then gently breathe out looking the other way so let's do it okay
so like so very simple i should have mentioned to you this actually has a little whistle in it
which actually indicates that you're able to breathe in with the force required
so if you look at the kind of force that i'm doing it's not like a breath in it's not like a normal
it's a lot stronger i'd probably say it's more of a
that kind of breath in okay so if you watch if i do it with a normal breath in
it won't make the whistling sound but if i do it with a proper breath in so breathe breathe in
so that's the kind of inhalation sort of speed that we need to do to get the turbohaler dose
right if we don't do it with that kind of speed and that kind of force you'll probably end up
with a powder in your mouth you're gonna get horrible taste in your mouth and it won't go
to the right part so if you are noticing you're getting all the powder in your mouth and you're
not able to breathe in with that much force then you need to speak to your healthcare professional
okay so that they can check how how deeply you can breathe in we have devices like this for example
which we're then able to test if you're actually you do have the capacity to actually take a
turbohaler breathing because it does require quite a bit of force so i hope that helped now once
you're done with that dose follow the instructions from your healthcare professional if you need to
do another dose you now know what to do and once you're all done get the lid that we had over here
my imaginary lid and twist it back on also please remember that these turbohaler do have a counter
as well always check the counter number as well to make sure that you've actually got doses left
in it and you're not actually just breathing in nothing because that's super important to remember
another thing to mention is as well if you are using a steroid turbohaler it is important to
try and use it let's say it's twice a day for example the dose i always say to patients try
and use it before brushing your teeth so if you're doing it twice a day once in the morning and once
in the evening before going to bed in the morning before you brush your teeth and the evening before
you brush your teeth again that way it's going to reduce your chances of getting oral thrush which
can be one of the side effects of using a steroid inhaler and for the full information on all the
side effects or on how to use your turbohaler again please read the information these are that
comes with this medication and also it's a really good idea if you're struggling at all if you're
finding this difficult to speak to your healthcare professional let them know how you're getting on
and also ask them to watch you use your turbohaler or if you're got another inhaler ask them to watch
you use it that's the best way to learn how to use the turbohaler or any other inhaler properly
because if you're not using it properly it's not going to get to the right part of the lungs and
it's not going to give you that adequate control that we want for asthmatics and copd this is the
most important thing that you need to remember and speaking of other inhalers i do have videos on how
to use a metered dose inhaler on how to use an aero chamber which i will leave links to up here
and in the description below so if you're interested in them if you have any of them
inhalers and you want to become a pro at that as well then click on the links and give it
a watch now let's move on to cleaning and storage in terms of cleaning your turbohaler
please please please do not get the turbohaler wet remember it's got that powder in there if you
get this wet and the water or any sort of liquid goes on the powder this inhaler is ruined okay so
please do not use any water in terms of cleaning you just use a cloth two to three times a week
just give that tip a quick little clean and then put that cap on always make sure inside the cap
is clean as well so there's no dirt or no fluff or anything like that that you're gonna put in there
and it could possibly go into the mouthpiece now in terms of storage the turbohaler is very easy
to store you just need to keep it in a cool dry place once you've got that lid on cool dry place
and make sure it's not over 30 degrees celsius and always check the expiry date the other thing
about the turbohaler i want to mention is when they run out make sure you hand it back to your
chemist whichever chemist that you got it from or any chemist you can hand it back to them but
please also do check if the chemists are part of the recycling scheme because these can be recycled
and lots of other inhalers can be recycled as well so i am going to leave a link to that
in the description below and i would highly highly recommend everyone to do this it's super
important that we're trying to recycle these inhalers they're plastic they don't degrade
and it's really good for the environment if we are able to recycle these so that's the end of
this week's video i promised you at the start of the video you are going to become a turbohaler
pro let me know if that is true leave a comment below let me know how you found the video
let me know if you've got any questions and let me know if you've got any of your own tips because i
love reading those comments and i'm sure everyone else watching this video would love to read those
comments too get some tips from each other and learn from each other as always sending your
awesome vibes and i will see you next week hey guys thanks for watching this week's video make
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