If you will be joining my COPD Success program, I will ask you to get a pulse oximeter. If you have never had a 6 minute walk test, or don’t have a regular doctor, it is very important to know your baseline. There are many people who should be on supplemental oxygen, but are not….
I continually tell this same joke: Patient: “Doctor, what’s the best exercise for me?” Doctor: “One that you will actually do” In my live Pulmonary Rehab classes, we do the “Big 4” exercises: treadmill, bike, arm bike, and weights. I have people who like all but the treadmill, and others who will do anything to…
In February 2016, I sent out a survey to determine how different lung diseases affect daily activities. Thank you to all 62 of you who participated! Here is what I learned: The majority of you have 1-2 doctor appointments per month. <10% of you have 3-4 doctor appointments per month. No one had more than…
I belong to a lot of online discussion forums, the participants being patients with lung disease. Many of them tell the story of how they thought they just had a lingering cold, went to the ER when they couldn’t breathe, and were told they have COPD or another chronic lung disease process. They were shocked…
I prefer my own writing to reposting other people’s content, but I simply had to include this 20 minute Ted talk by a fabulous woman named Robyn O’Brien. Her talk echoes what I have been saying to my patients over the years: There’s something inflammatory going on in our U.S. food supply, and if you…
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….
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…
Can someone with asthma ever completely ditch the inhalers? I came across an interesting article in the Huffington Post Healthy Living Blog, about the possibility of getting off inhalers. The story outlines a patient who has symptoms of asthma, and went through the classic course: antibiotics, then inhalers, then medication for gastric reflux, all…