On oxygen via a nasal cannula?

[BarnOwl]

Like so?

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=nasal+cannula&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

If yes, you’ve probably experienced ear tenderness from the damn cannula tubes you wind behind them. My O2 supplier gave me a product for it - useless as it turns out - but more about that later.

What I do is wrap a 1" x 1" gauze pad around the cannula’s right ear tube part, and staple it closed. Just the gauze pad, NOT the tube.

Do the same for the left ear tube.

Put the the nasal prongs in your nostrils and gently loop the tubes behind your ears. Then slide the gauze pads behind your ears to cushion the tubing.

Voila.

The product I mentioned.

It consists of 2 three inch foam tubes with a cut down the long axis. You’re supposed to insert the O2 tubes through the cuts, into the foam tubes and have them cushion the ears.

But in the version I got, the diameter of the foam tubes is too short to hold the friggin’ tubes.

They keep coming out.

My idea works better—for me, anyway.

[eleanorigby]

The soreness is caused by the pressure place on the delicate skin around the ear by the oxygen tubing. Just FYI, redness that doesn’t fade in a few minutes is the first sign of pressure damage. The gauze will help for a short while. Please alternate the placement of your O2 cannula by using your ears and then by stringing around your head, using the “clasp” to hold it in place on the back of your head (like a low ponytail).

I have seen and had to treat (under doc’s orders, of course) decubiti caused by oxygen tubing. They ain’t pretty. Be careful.

Lotions, creams etc are useless. Keep the skin warm, clean and dry (you may want to use lotion after washing with soap), and rotate where that tubing lays.
IANAD and other disclaimers apply.

[BarnOwl]

@eleanorigby

The soreness is caused by the pressure place on the delicate skin around the ear by the oxygen tubing. Just FYI, redness that doesn’t fade in a few minutes is the first sign of pressure damage. The gauze will help for a short while. Please alternate the placement of your O2 cannula by using your ears and then by stringing around your head, using the “clasp” to hold it in place on the back of your head (like a low ponytail).

I have seen and had to treat (under doc’s orders, of course) decubiti caused by oxygen tubing. They ain’t pretty. Be careful.

Lotions, creams etc are useless. Keep the skin warm, clean and dry (you may want to use lotion after washing with soap), and rotate where that tubing lays.
IANAD and other disclaimers apply.

good stuff! Thank you!

[aruvqan]

Though a lovely gentle cream/lotion is great for the poor abused nostrils … desert essence makes a shea butter ‘chapstick’ that is marvelous on that delicate skin in and around the nostrils.