Hey all, starting SmartVest... Anyone w positive experience?

Hi Lynne,
I am most happy to send the Medium vest to you. I'm not sure of the charge but we'll see what
it is. You have the other parts right, the hose and machine that shakes the heck out of you right?
I hope it will help you and sending good thoughts your way.
Sincerely,
Peg

I have BE
I have just recently been diagnosed with a hiatal hernia. Apparently it comes from coughing. I am getting trained on the Smart Vest in about a week. I'm a little nervous that forced coughing will make my hiatal hernia worse. I rarely ever bring up any mucus no matter what I do.
I have been using 3% saline once a day with a flutter device
Is it possible not to have mucus?

If you have had back surgery or any type of hip back pain I would skip it, I wish I knew that before I did. It inflamed the hip area that was pretty stable for 2/3 years. Vest was ill fitting and was programed to high. I am now in constant pain and can’t get in to my orthopedic doc for weeks. No amount of pain medication helps. Think seriously before you sign on and weight the benefits

I noticed in the first statement the person said the Pulmonary nurse told her after a couple weeks you should see the benefits & replace the saline!!! CAN ANYONE explain the logic behind that!! Why do you have to wait a couple weeks!!! I have a vest also and it’s called the Afflo vest and I didn’t see much benefit at all. I called the company and they told me the same thing!!! I asked them to explain why 2-3 weeks? But received no explanation. I like many others I’m sure would love to replace the 3% or 7% saline.

@spider109 Hi! I can't speak for what any pulmonary nurse says but I have a feeling the nurses sent out to train us on our SmartVest may not have much experience with bronchiectasis. My training nurse was great getting me started but also said the vest could replace other tools in a few weeks. Definitely do not try to make it replace saline nebulizing!
Everyone is different but I found the vest helped get up for phlegm right away. I experimented and ended up with the most helpful routine being to nebulizer saline while using the vest and huff coughing on the vest breaks. I did stop the aerobika which had been doing nothing for me. I did run this by my doctors who approved.

@spider and all -- just realized I was the original poster. I should join another support group for memory issues ... 🤣

@lvnl thank you for your reply, I think what makes a huge difference is the location of the mucus in your lungs. Mine is both lower lobes (posterior) and middle right lobe. As the airway branches get lower into the lungs they get smaller I believe, therefore it makes sense to me that it would be more compacted in a smaller space thus making it harder to sheer off and get into the larger more central airways to expel. Make sense? I have better luck with Autogenic drainage and Areobika. I don’t think anyone will really have an answer, as to why 2-3 weeks. Anyway I truly wish you the best on this BE journey we all know how hard it is to cope with this disease. God bless and Best wishes.

@roxsana9 , I also had a bad experience with my Smart Vest. I am dealing with five compression fractures on my thoracic spine. The pain is constant, my doctor scheduled an ablation for next month. After several MRIs and a good medical history, there is not doubt that those fractures were caused by the Smart Vest. It also made my Spinal Cord Stimulator hyperactive. This was causing very painful electrical discharges and jolting. I did have to turn off my SCS , I am so afraid to turned it back on because I don`t want to experience those spasms again. Please be careful, do your research, talk to your doctor and if you have osteoporosis or other condition that affects your thoracic back, DON`T USE IT.

@sori
You are 100% correct i am doing the research now when i should have done it before. I answered every question yes to the back issues. Also when the back issues started after a couple of session mSmartVest birl said would ne ok. I have not been able to get out of bed due to hip pain and spasms, 2 ER visits later still in pain. This needs a big black box warning.

Hello @ Sori! I got a smartest several months ago and took a chance because of spinal neuropathy. I was hesitant because I have spinal neuropathy and shake rattle and roll really aggravates it! I am sure you know the pain that can ripple thru your body. So I queried the company after approval and they sent me three rectangular foam blocks when put together block the shaking directly on my spine. With that in place, and I limit its use to once a day mainly out of fear that the spinal neuropathy will rear its ugly head. So far so good. I notice that even at once a day (2x a day is recommended) , throughout the day more bits of mucus come up during the day. I hope things work out for you. The company indicated that within a reasonable time after purchase it could be returned. I would think 30 days as they have a billing cycle with Medicare to accommodate patient problems. They really were very nice to work with. Yeah, you gotta do your homework about this stuff. We all are pretty fragile. Good luck and let me know. Sincerely, Nancy Fox