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| Tracy C.
was diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis at age 2. She has vivid
memories of frequent hospital stays and sinus surgeries since age
4. Tracy grew up in Louisiana and remembers her mother administering
chest physical therapy (CPT or rapid chest percussion) every day
before school. The purpose was to rid her lungs of fluid
so she would not get sick. “We’d be in there pounding away, so
nobody in the house got any sleep,” she recalls. |
| Today,
Tracy is 25 years old and has moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, with
her husband, who is a pilot. As a Respiratory Therapist, Tracy
trains others with respiratory conditions to use a SmartVest® to
rid their lungs of excess secretions. It was not until the frequency
of these trainings increased that she considered using a SmartVest® herself.
“Every time I went out to do a training I thought, ‘This is really
cool. It works so well. I need to get this.’” |
| Tracy contacted
her doctor and requested her own SmartVest® in
April of 2008. She uses it two times per day for 30-minute sessions.
Tracy said that when she first received the machine, “My expectations
were that it would help me get my secretions out so that my husband
wouldn’t have to pound on me (he took over administering CPT whenever
he was home); I wanted to be able to take it with me because I
fly a lot; and I wanted to be able to use the vest at the same
time as my medications to decrease the total treatment time because
I work 12-hour shifts.” She said all of her expectations were met. |
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| “I
sleep better, I’m exercising a lot more, and I’m not
as susceptible to all the sickness I’m around every
day working in respiratory therapy.” |
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| “It takes away the burden
from everybody else, it shortens the treatment time,
and it gives you more energy.” |
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| Tracy is
convinced that the SmartVest® has decreased her
hospital stays. “With all the time that I have, which is very little,
and with my husband being gone a lot, I would have gone without
any treatments,” she says. “I was always feeling sick and tired,
so I didn’t have the energy to do it.” Now, she gets up an hour
early to do her SmartVest® treatment before work, and does it again
when she gets home. “I sleep better, I’m exercising a lot more,
and I’m not as susceptible to all the sickness I’m around every
day working in respiratory therapy.” |
Tracy said
she recommended the SmartVest® for
her 5-year-old cousin, who also has Cystic Fibrosis, when she saw
his mother administering CPT and heard him whining, “Do we have
to do this?” Tracy said she immediately recalled saying the exact
same thing at his age. Now they administer his medications and
use the SmartVest® at
the same time, which has shortened his treatments to about 30 minutes.
“They love it,” she said. “It takes away the burden from everybody
else, it shortens the treatment time, and it gives you more energy.
You just feel a whole lot better.”  |
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