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COPD Group: Introduce yourself and connect with others
COPD: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease | Last Active: Mar 29, 2023 | Replies (86)Comment receiving replies
Did talk to the pulmonary therapist. She is frustrated, too, and hopes the hospital will be able to stop requiring masks soon, as our Covid rate is going down in this area. Pursed lip breathing is hard to remember throughout the day, but I am working on it. Plain paper masks work best for me -- got some N95 type and they are harder to breathe in.
Also, I am unable to get an answer to this question from my pulmonologist, and haven't had a chance to ask my cardiologist yet. Why do I have difficulty breathing when walking (with my walker) around the house or down the street , but don't have any difficulty when exercising in Silver Sneakers or pulmonary rehab? I certainly am working hard in the exercise environment (sweating a lot, mouth breathing in gulps) but have never had to stop because of shortness of breath. Does anybody else have this experience?
Thanks for being a good resource. I appreciate your time and effort. dt
Replies to "Did talk to the pulmonary therapist. She is frustrated, too, and hopes the hospital will be..."
Some years ago, I watched an interview with Shirley MacLaine. They asked her how she was able to breathe through long, energetic dance numbers. She said that she just breathed out and let her body take care of breathing in. About that time, my cousin began having panic anxiety attacks, the kind where it felt like a tiger was chasing him. He tried running them off. I told him about Shirley MacLaine's habit of just breathing out. He tried it and said that it was the magic bullet for him. The feeling of fleeing from terror abated very quickly. I tried it when I was very short winded and feeling anxious, and it seemed to help. Though it might be because I was concentrating on blowing out and relaxing my shoulders, which distracted me from from thinking about the anxiety. I have never experienced a panic attack, but I have been present when my cousin did, and he was truly terrified. Today I walked two blocks, the fartherest I've walked, since beginning chemo two years ago. Since the anxiety lifted a couple of weeks ago, I can walk upstairs to go to bed without collapsing at the top and gasping for breath, but I am winded enough to want to sit down and recover. Being old and sick is three steps backwards and one step forward. Boy do I love and appreciate that step forward!
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Good morning- I had this problem too, but without the walker. I found that I was anxious to do everything so perfectly that my anxiety was interfering. I found that if I started to feel this way I stopped walking. Then I started again. Even if it was one step at a time. Inhale every 2 or 3 seconds then exhale. It takes a while and is very awkward. I found out that when I was at rehab there was a competitive edge. We just tend to do better. We look around and don't pay as much attention to every little thing.
Can you ask one of the rehab trainers to breathe with you so that you can get a better grasp on breathing?
It might be a good idea to see your cardiologist for a check-up to make sure that everything is ticking as it should. Then, keep practicing. I think that it might be that with a walker you don't swing your arms so maybe a bit of coordination is off? Can you walk without your walker at all?
Do you have heart problems along with COPD?