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Post by gerald on Feb 14, 2018 14:33:59 GMT -5
Tips to Make Using Oxygen Tubing a Little Easier February 13, 2018 by Kim Fredrickson Using supplemental oxygen is a mixed bag. It is wonderful because it gives us the oxygen we need to keep our body healthy and to stay alive. It is hard due to many reasons I shared in a previous column, including dealing with the tubing. I’ve discovered a few tricks over the last 3½ years of using supplemental oxygen that make wrestling with the tubing a little easier. It’s my pleasure to share them with you. New tubing I always love taking out a new roll of oxygen tubing. It is fresh and new, with no kinks … yet. The downside is that it is hard to get the coils out of the tubing, which makes it a tripping hazard. Here’s a trick I learned to make it stay flat. Take the tubing out of the plastic bag and put it in a mesh laundry bag (the kind you use to wash delicate items in your washer). Put the bag and 3-4 towels in your dryer, and set the heat at low. Run the dryer for 10 minutes and take out the laundry bag. Remove the tubing from the bag. It will be a little warm. Take the tubing and stretch it out. You can do this with another person or by yourself. Make sure you don’t let either end touch the floor, to avoid germs. I made a video to show you how to do this. It works great. The tubing will lie flat on the ground, and no more tripping! Oxygen connectors Most oxygen companies provide you with a solid plastic connector that joins your tubing to your cannula. This does the job, but it doesn’t help with the tubing getting easily tangled. Ask your oxygen provider if it has swivel connectors instead. If it doesn’t, you can buy them online. The kind I use is $5 for two. They help the tubing not get so tangled. I show you what they look like in the tubing video. ‘Y’ connectors As your oxygen needs increase, you may need to connect two tanks or concentrators to give you the amount of oxygen you need. In the video, I show you how I hook two liquid oxygen tanks together to dispense 8 liters per minute of oxygen. Each of my tanks only delivers 6 LPM, so by hooking them together, I can go as high as 12 LPM. The connectors I use are $12 for five. I hope these tips help to make using oxygen tubing a little easier. pulmonaryfibrosisnews.com/2018/02/13/pf-tips-make-using-oxygen-tubing-little-easier
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Post by joany on Feb 14, 2018 19:12:03 GMT -5
So good of you to provide this info. How the heck did you come up with the tube-dekinker recipe? What happens if you set the heat too high in the dryer? Do keep those cards and letters coming...
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Post by gerald on Feb 14, 2018 23:16:01 GMT -5
That was a great entry on the Pulmunary Fibrosis Email bulletin.
I would never have thought to do that to straighten the hose out!!! You could probably do the same thing dipping the sealed plastic package in hot water for a few minutes to soften the hose.
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Post by lavishgail on Feb 15, 2018 15:36:11 GMT -5
Wonderful! How did I miss this? And you can pick up delicate laundry bags for $1 at the dollar store and you get three of them in a package I've had mine for 2 years so far and they're still perfect. GOOD luck Y'ALL..
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Post by judi on Mar 15, 2018 23:51:30 GMT -5
You can do this in the oven too, wrap in towel and I think on warm setting. I have not tried it but plan to.
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Post by TULIP on Mar 16, 2018 12:25:46 GMT -5
Look at each end of the swivel connector. The hole is a different size at each end. Have the end with the larger hole pushed into your oxygen tubing source (concentrator/tank.) The smaller hole end goes into the tubing that goes to your cannula.
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Post by barb7330 on Mar 16, 2018 21:27:03 GMT -5
I wonder if you could wrap it in towels and put it in the microwave for a short time on low heat....I'm in apt. so don't have a dryer in my unit, but could try the oven I guess.
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Post by lavishgail on Mar 20, 2018 23:28:27 GMT -5
I was thinking about that too. Microwave oven, as long as you have a little hole in the bag it is in I don't see why not? What do you think Gerald?
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Post by lavishgail on Mar 20, 2018 23:30:32 GMT -5
Or can you put it in already boiled water on the stove? After it cools down a little?
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Post by gerald on Mar 21, 2018 17:41:22 GMT -5
I would be a bit concerned about using the microwave. If it overheats the hose at any point it could collapse the hose and make it useless.
I don't think you would have to boil water, if you had it in a bag just in the sink, the water coming out of the tap would be hot enough to soften the hose a bit. It should not need to soften it much to allow it to release the coils etc.
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Post by skate4life on Mar 21, 2018 18:26:38 GMT -5
I thought the various heating methods was to soften the plastic but you still need a method to stretch the softened tubing to actually get rid of the kinks? How do you all do that?
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Post by jarca on Mar 21, 2018 20:59:26 GMT -5
wow! great tip & youtube. I get my long line in 10' lengths & then put a swivels every 10' to try preventing the coiling up. (my company carries clear lines & the green lines & i was told that the green lines were made thicker & were meant to 'coil up' to be out of the way, but i've tripped too many times & don't think aving it coil up is safe at all!
my 02 company supplies lines, cannulas & swivels for no extra fee so i don't have to buy them. (Lincare is supposed to supply 'everything you need for 1 monthly price!)
I usually hang a few cannulas & my 10' lines on hooks on my wall heater (even in summer it's a place to hang them) to try & get them stretched out & straight before i use them. so this is great info for me. such a simple idea to put in dryer---i never thought of that!!!!
i didn't even know they made straight connectors as i've only ever gotten swivel connectors brought to me! (now i can see why some people didn't know what i was talking about in some of my posts---i just thought using swivels was the only way & everyone used them!
the liquid 02 isn't available where i live so i've never seen those big tanks either! ---sure seems like they take up a lot of room! does liquid 02 work better than a home concentrator??
thank you for the youtube video---so much easier to understand what i can see.
I'm curious=when i was put on 02 they brought out some things & explained how they worked; but it sure seems like i was just prescribed 02 & sent off to learn on my own; seems like they should have classes on 'how to use 02' or maybe they do in other places. again; thank you for the video---I wouldn't have known what to 'search' for to find the info, so i appreciate this & any other videos that might be a help in learning about life on 02!
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Post by gerald on Mar 21, 2018 22:59:09 GMT -5
I keep thinking back to how we deal with a new garden hose. Let it sit out in the sun (in its original coil), once it has sat there for 3 or 4 hours, just stretch it out flat and then roll it up the way you want it rolled.
Someone could try an old hose in the microwave and see if the heat damages it.
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Post by skate4life on Nov 5, 2019 20:12:58 GMT -5
Good to refresh these ideas. Just a reminder to make sure the zipper on the mesh bag is not made of metal if you are going to try the microwave...easy to forget if they used white 'paint' of the zipper tab...
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Post by Richdr55 on Oct 23, 2020 11:20:13 GMT -5
I put a 25' oxygen hose in the microwave while still in it's original plastic bag for 20 seconds. It felt slightly warm so a repeated warming for another 20 seconds. I then rolled it out and let it rest for a few minutes. Seemed to do the job. Thanks for this thread.
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