Hi, everyone, I'm Morgan.
I'm one of the clinical pharmacists here at the Salt Lake V.A.
We're going to be going over a variety of inhalers today.
I have my patient Thomas here.
Thomas, it looks like you were prescribed an albuterol inhaler. OK.
Now, when you see an albuterol inhaler, you may see the names ventolin or Pro Air.
These inhalers are used as rescue medications for when you're feeling
very short of breath.
OK, so I'm going to show you a couple of ways to use it
one alone and then one with a spacer.
OK, so I'm going to just hand this over to you and what you're going to do first.
If you were first picking this up and first using it,
you're going to have to prime this medication.
What that means is it's just getting it ready for use.
So give that a few shakes up and down you up.
Continue holding it that way.
Perfect and then take off that cap.
All right. And just shoot it into the air once. OK, perfect.
So this is a tester medication, but you would have seen a puff
of of medication come out when you're doing this
now to fully prime it, you would do that three more times.
So another shake and three more sprays every time you get a new inhaler.
Do this or if you haven't used the inhaler in 14 days, you would reframe it.
OK, now if we're ready to inhale,
you're going to have to time this medication with your inhalation.
A little more specifically,
after this medication has been primed, you're now ready to inhale. OK,
so you will have to time this medication a little bit with your inhalation.
So start breathing out
and then bring that medication to your mouth.
Breathe in and press down as you continue to breathe and perfect.
Again, you're going to hold your breath
for about ten seconds or whatever is comfortable for you.
And then exhale. Great.
That was one puff.
If your doctor says you should take another one weight
about one minute until repeating that process again.
OK, now if you put that cap back on,
it is ready to be used again. All right.
Now, that was a little more difficult to time
than maybe some of our other medications, so we have a handy what we call a spacer
or a holding chamber.
It's also called
So I'll have you take that inhaler again, and then I'll show you how to use this
when you load a medication.
You'll be sure to still shake that inhaler as you normally would
and take off that cap. OK.
Perfect, and then you'll put the mouthpiece right
into the end of that spacer. Awesome.
Now you can take off the cap of the spacer,
and when you put this to your mouth, it's going to this
chamber is going to hold the medication a little bit for you.
So instead of timing it that you're inhaling
as the medication is going in, that will cut down on that timing for you.
So you will bring this to your spacer to your mouth,
inhale and press.
There you go. If you're hearing a whistling,
when you're inhaling, you're going just a little bit too fast.
So just slow down your inhalation, otherwise very similar.
Hold your breath for the ten seconds and then breathe out. Okay?
Now you do the same thing, just take it apart and you're good to go.
Put the caps back on, and it's ready to use next time.
That's right. Of course.