What Can Help a Senior with COPD and Pain?

Elder Care Marlboro Township, NJ: Seniors and COPD
Elder Care Marlboro Township, NJ: Seniors and COPD

There can be a great deal of pain involved with COPD. Your elderly family member might feel pain when she tries to take more than a shallow breath or she might experience pain in other parts of her body. If she’s doing too much or too little, that can contribute to pain, too. 

Find Out What Her Doctor Recommends 

There are a lot of different reasons for pain with COPD. It’s important that your senior’s doctor knows what she’s experiencing and whether the pain gets better or worse under certain circumstances. Keeping a log of what’s happening can be helpful in terms of getting the right information to your senior’s doctor.  

Add Breathing Exercises to Her Repertoire 

Breathing exercises can do so much for your elderly family member. They can help to strengthen her lungs and they help her to deal with both pain and anxiety from experiencing shortness of breath. Like any exercise, breathing exercises can seem difficult to your elderly family member at first. As she practices, though, they become easier and more helpful. If her doctor recommends pulmonary rehabilitation, your senior can learn a variety of different types of breathing exercises. 

Give Her Body the Right Fuel to Keep Going 

Having the right fuel on board is going to help your senior more than she thinks when it comes to managing pain in her lungs and chest. If she’s eating foods that create bloating or fluid retention, that makes her circulatory system and her lungs work harder than they should have to work. Talk to your senior’s doctor about what the right foods are for her. In general, nutrient dense whole foods are excellent choices, but foods like broccoli can create the gas she wants to avoid. 

Respect Her Limits 

It’s really important that your elderly family member knows and respects her limitations. If she’s continually pushing too much and trying too hard, that’s going to result in pain and in having less energy than she needs in order to keep going. One of the best ways for your senior to conserve her energy is to lean on the help of elderly care providers. They can take over the tasks that sap too much of her energy, leaving her to do what she needs and wants to do. 

Just because your senior does experience some pain with COPD that doesn’t mean she has to put up with it. She can find ways to manage and to limit the pain that she’s experiencing, and that can help her overall health to be better than she might expect. 

If you or an aging loved one are considering elder care in Marlboro Township, NJ, please contact the caring staff at Lares Home Care 888-492-3538 or 732-566-1112.

Roy Kleinert