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 […]
How Not to Feel Isolated and Lonely with COPD
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 […]
Are Pulse Oximeters accurate?
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. […]