Just Dyspnea and It’s my fault
The COPD patient complains of breathlessness when cough and (sometimes) phlegm have been present for a longer period of time. Some experts have considered that when breathlessness is already installed there are chances for improvement. There are options and no space for regrets. Although the self blaming changes the perspective of some patients, physicians and other health care givers may reinforce the power of the patient.
Patients need to consider their own will since not all the control is on health system’s hands. So what a patient can do?
Understanding the basic: Chronicity
Patients with COPD must understand the chronicity of the disease. It’s not by coincidence that it occurs or develop. More than a lotto result is one of the potential reactions to continuous exposure to noxious particles and gases. Although this exposure happened a long time ago there is a trend in our organism to keep living and the immunological reactions continue.
The risk factors
Smoking is a key risk factor and of course the most important. However, our current environments are polluted and there is some concentration of population in big cities or industrial areas where it’s easier to inhale low quality air. At the same time, there are some occupations that predispose to continuous inhalation of bad air.
Old “Normal” Symptoms
The COPD patient develops symptoms progressively. The progressive appearance of symptoms allows certain level of adaptation. Most of the patients consider their symptoms as normal and tend to accept them as natural until they become bothersome not only for them but for people around. It’s not the cough what bothers people as much as somebody breathing with difficulty continuously.
Education as basics
Considering the relevance of self education in the management of the disease, an appropriate interaction of the patient with themselves, and with information sources, care givers, health system, may help them to cope better with the disease. Some patients may prefer an academic source, while others tend to go to news or friendly scientific writers, but the important issue is to select a few that answer and help according to the individual needs.
It may be good to create regularity visiting some sources of getting information from certain books. However it is the patient who must choice to get the most of the current evolving knowledge on COPD.
Some considerations on self education
As general recommendations, given the constant flow of information, there are some basic things that COPD patients may do to help in their health support:
- Understand the basics of the disease
- Conceive it as chronic and progressive
- Identify the cause and modify it
- Precise a few sources of written information based on individual needs
- Stick to the physician directions in terms of medication and office visits
In a next post let’s define more features that may help in the selection of written sources of COPD information.
Just Dyspnea and It’s my fault
The COPD patient complains of breathlessness when cough and (sometimes) phlegm have been present for a longer period of time. Some experts have considered that when breathlessness is already installed there are chances for improvement. There are options and no space for regrets. Although the self blaming changes the perspective of some patients, physicians and other health care givers may reinforce the power of the patient.
Patients need to consider their own will since not all the control is on health system’s hands. So what a patient can do?
Understanding the basic: Chronicity
Patients with COPD must understand the chronicity of the disease. It’s not by coincidence that it occurs or develop. More than a lotto result is one of the potential reactions to continuous exposure to noxious particles and gases. Although this exposure happened a long time ago there is a trend in our organism to keep living and the immunological reactions continue.
The risk factors
Smoking is a key risk factor and of course the most important. However, our current environments are polluted and there is some concentration of population in big cities or industrial areas where it’s easier to inhale low quality air. At the same time, there are some occupations that predispose to continuous inhalation of bad air.
Old “Normal” Symptoms
The COPD patient develops symptoms progressively. The progressive appearance of symptoms allows certain level of adaptation. Most of the patients consider their symptoms as normal and tend to accept them as natural until they become bothersome not only for them but for people around. It’s not the cough what bothers people as much as somebody breathing with difficulty continuously.
Education as basics
Considering the relevance of self education in the management of the disease, an appropriate interaction of the patient with themselves, and with information sources, care givers, health system, may help them to cope better with the disease. Some patients may prefer an academic source, while others tend to go to news or friendly scientific writers, but the important issue is to select a few that answer and help according to the individual needs.
It may be good to create regularity visiting some sources of getting information from certain books. However it is the patient who must choice to get the most of the current evolving knowledge on COPD.
Some considerations on self education
As general recommendations, given the constant flow of information, there are some basic things that COPD patients may do to help in their health support:
In a next post let’s define more features that may help in the selection of written sources of COPD information.