Dear Doctor, There’s one in every crowd… that one patient that just can’t get their medication routine down, can’t find a good enough reason to quit smoking, can’t make any time to exercise. Or maybe you can think of 10 of these patients, right off the top of your head. Go ahead and grab a…
If you have COPD, you are well aware of triggers that can cause difficult breathing, or shortness of breath. Some people describe the scary feeling as: they can’t get enough air, or their chest feels tight. It is important to figure out the things that trigger this short breathing, but sometimes it just seems to…
My patient tells me she feels depressed. She used to go to lunch with all her friends on Wednesdays, but now she just tells them to go on without her. “Why?”, I asked . “I don’t like to hold them up. I walk so slow now! They say they don’t mind but I feel like…
Dear Kelly, My husband just got home from the hospital. He has COPD, but went in for a knee replacement. He has a big bag full of plastic Respiratory Stuff…. an Incentive Spirometer, a PEP therapy device, a vibratory PEP device, and some inspiratory muscle training device. Does he need to do all of these?…
What is the difference between these programs? 30 Days to Breathing Easier is a beginner program for people who have minimal internet skills. One E mail per day is delivered right to your inbox, with a clickable link to a one to two -minute fun video to watch. You have the option to download and…
Often times my patients will bring in their ‘home’ Pulse oximeters to compare with the hospital grade oximeters. There are a number of things to understand about how a pulse ox works, in order to understand the numbers. When you place the finger probe on your finger, the light needs to go through the nailbed….
This is one of my favorite (not!) answers when I ask one of my patients why they come to class wheezing and barely able to breathe. I have to pause before I figure out how to tactfully ask the question: You know you need your inhalers, so, how could you not know you were running…
Congratulations, you have been categorized. First, I don’t want to minimize the impact COPD has on a person. Just getting the diagnosis of COPD from a doctor, and then learning to live with it, are very daunting tasks. If you got your diagnosis from a Pulmonologist, who did some sort of spirometry or Pulmonary Function…