Chronic Wellness

Chronic Wellness

By Annette LeonardHealth & Fitness
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Chronic Wellness episodes

  • Episode 165: How do You Manage Life With Lung Disease? Managing Fear and Anxiety
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    How do you manage anxiety and panic?
    What strategies do you have for dealing with fear?
    Here are two techniques.
    The first is visual - find five red things around me.
    The second is a bit more detailed. Go through the five senses: What are my feet resting on? What am I hearing? What can I taste? What do I see? What do I smell?
    Sensation is in the present moment and anxiety is typically in the past or future.
    6 min
  • Episode 164: How do You Manage Life With Lung Disease? Fear & Anxiety
    Do you remember swimming a bit too fast?
    Do you know what it feels like to exert too hard and not get enough of a breath?
    These are a bit of the experience of lung disease.
    Being always short of air, unable to inflate my lungs can lead to feeling panic.
    Panting, burning, always hungry for more oxygen has caused me to become more anxious.
    When left alone, in the dark, trying to go to sleep, the fears began to consume me as I felt smothered.
    6 min
  • Episode 163: How do You Manage Life With Lung Disease? How to Sleep with a Cannula
    This was a cannula game changer for me!
    I'm a fairly fidget-free sleeper but sleeping with a cannula is tricky.
    By putting the cannula behind my head, cinching it and suspending the cord on the headboard, the rest of the tubing is out of the way and off the covers.
    It's also useful to remember at other times that the cannula can be worn down the back instead of hanging in front at other times like during meals or doing tasks in front of the body.
    4 min
  • Episode 161: How do You Manage Life With Lung Disease? Nosebleed Intervention
    While I have complaints about living on oxygen therapy, I'm so thankful that there IS oxygen therapy. Without it, I might not be here today.
    Getting nosebleeds almost everyday it was difficult and frustrating figure out how to still get a supply of oxygen while treating the bleeding.
    Working with my doctor I was referred to an Ear Nose and Throat Doctor to have my nasal capillaries cauterized.
    Anyone with serious nosebleeds and health insurance this is a real solution!
    5 min
  • Episode 160: How do You Manage Life With Lung Disease? Nosebleed Pro-tip
    With supplemental oxygen came nosebleeds. Excessive nasal dryness, I get nosebleeds.
    I had epic nosebleeds and so I have some tools for dealing with them.
    As we learned in first aid, pressure staunches bleeding, so here's a pro tip for dealing with a nosebleed: it involves a square or two of toilet paper and a bit of water. Things you should have readily available if you're suffering from a nosebleed.
    Contrary to the popular wisdom, I don't tilt my head back -- the only thing worse than having a nosebleed, is to lean my head back, is to lean my head back and have all that blood go down the back of my throat!
    5 min
  • Episode 159: How do You Manage Life With Lung Disease? Life with Oxygen
    Lung disease makes you appreciate what requires oxygen.
    From laughing to crying, it all requires a lot of oxygen.
    Living with supplemental oxygen, I learned that not all cannulas are created equal.
    Having increased comfort when wearing oxygen matters a great deal.
    SoftHose is the brand of oxygen tubing that I prefer over others I've tried for quality and comfort.
    Thank you lungs for pumping away every day on our behalf!
    5 min
  • Episode 157: How do You Manage Life With Lung Disease? Scary Meditation
    Take a deep breath and appreciate your lungs.
    It is easy to take autonomic responses for granted until they go offline.
    Loosing 70% of my lung function in less than 6 months.
    The experience of being unable to catch my breath was scary.
    I'd just cultivated a meditation practice where I focused my attention on the breath.
    Now my place of refuge was scary.
    What arose was to find a replacement, to tune into another function, the beating of my heart.
    6 min
  • Episode 156: How do You Manage Life With Lung Disease?
    Are you one of the millions impacted by lung disease?
    This week we'll be talking about how to live better with lung disease.
    Today I'm sharing an interesting detail about one way that lung disease, over time, changes other physical structures in our body.
    With poor circulation and lung problems, comes structural change to the fingers and toes. How remarkable!
    6 min

About Chronic Wellness

From the publisher's feed

Are you one of the millions living with a chronic illness or pain? Our diseases may be very different, but we have many of the same experiences, obstacles and frustrations. We are all working for a better quality of life knowing that pain and limitations will be our traveling companions. My name is Annette and I'm the host of Chronic Wellness, a brief, weekly, podcast where we talk about it all: sex, self-care, mental heath, loss of identity, anger, how to navigate health care and have less days that suck so hard.