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Lung disease, whether it be obstructive or restrictive causes a change in a persons life style. From wearing no oxygen to having to wear oxygen where ever a person goes will certainly change one's lifestyle.

"When you can't breathe, nothing else matters" - American Lung Association

The best way to explain an obstructive lung disease as simple as possible is this. "I can inhale, but I cannot exhale." What I tell my patient's family members is to take a deep breath in. OK...now only blow out a little bit of that breath...now breathe on top of that. It is a very difficult thing to do for very long, but that is how people with COPD breathe. When Momma said, "In with the good air, out with the bad air," She was right. So there is a lot of things in the mechanics of breathing that is compromised when a person has COPD.

1. They cannot exhale completely.
One of the things that gets taught in Pulmonary Rehab is pursed lipped breathing.
What this does is keep the airways open longer to allow just a little more "bad"
air out. This is a very difficult thing to do when one is short of breath.
So our Rehab patients are taught to do this before it becomes a crisis

2. The air sacs in the lungs (alveoli)are not able to exchange with the blood vessels
as well as they should, so the carbon dioxide (CO2) starts to build up in the
system. As this happens, the body will try and compensate for it. If it
happens too quickly, the person will become confused and very sleepy. It is
essential to get this person to the hospital right away as they can eventually
stop breathing.

3. Because of the person not being able to exhale completely, the lungs become
hyper-inflated and lose that ability to be elastic and spring back. It is
like blowing up an balloon and deflating it and blowing it up again and deflating
it...etc...eventually the balloon does not go back to it's original shape. That
is the problem with the lungs also. It means that a person with emphysema
has to depend on other muscles to help them breathe. You may see them doing
a lot of "tummy breathing", or shoulder breathing.

When one comes to the hospital with a "COPD exacerbation" it means that they are in crisis. They feel that they cannot breathe. If they feel that they cannot breathe it is not up to family members to tell them to calm down. It is up to them to take action. Once a person gets to the hospital, they can do several things to help:

1. Oxygen
A lot of times a person with COPD is already on oxygen. Do not turn up
up the O2 on someone with

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