Self management plan.

[PaulineHM]

Hello,

There are quite a few self management plans out there especially for COPD.

Do you use one and if you do, is it helpful ? I don't use one except to consider how I am feeling during the day. Wondering if I should cobble one together or try the ALUK one which is a might 20 pages for COPD.

What do you think?

Have a good day y'all.

Pauline

[Troilus]

Hi Pauline. I have an asthma plan which has finally been personalised and a copd one which is generic. The asthma one was drawn up by the asthma nurse with me telling her what the hospital had told me. The copd one was not discussed at all.It was sent to me electronically after a review - it mentions a rescue pack (haven’t got one and GP won’t supply one) and oxygen-I have never had oxygen at home.

I don’t refer to either. The asthma plan I know by heart and the copd plan seems to have nothing to do with me.

However, I’m (optimistically/ naively even) assuming that drs might refer to them if you having problems.

As the plan does not seem to be personalised I will post below. It is in two parts. It may help you to devise your own.

I’m assuming if it not allowed someone will take it down, so if it is not there that’ll be the reason😁

[Troilus in reply to Troilus]

part 1

Management plan copd part 1

[Troilus in reply to Troilus]

part 2

Management plan

[PaulineHM in reply to Troilus]

Thanks Troilus for adding copies of the plan you have there. Interesting and all the plans I have seen vary quite a bit.

I too have asthma/COPD. I have a copy of brief information at every oxygen assessment, where my prescription is recorded. To be honest I don't look at it, from the day I am given it. My last 'self management care plan ' was given to me in 2016 some of which is still relevant. I haven't looked at that either since recently considering to use for myself.

I like the look of this plan, even though it is not in my geographical area of the country but it looks workable for me to stick to. I wonder what you might think of it ?

nottsapc.nhs.uk/media/drnfz...

Go well,

Pauline

[Troilus]

It looks good to me Pauline. Simple little checklists. Clear and easy to follow.

Just popped back to do an edit to add that I monitor my asthma fairly closely and although I don’t look at my management plan I do action it.

[PaulineHM in reply to Troilus]

Thanks for that feedback, that was my thinking on this particular edition.

Will print it off and give it a whirl for a month - will see how it pans out .

Go well,

Pauline

[Ergendl]

The only plan I got was from a questionnaire on the British Lung Foundation website, which was short and told me what I needed to ask for at my GP. Nothing else.

[PaulineHM in reply to Ergendl]

Hi Ergendl,

Thanks for your reply which is helpful. Am thinking I have got to the stage where I need to focus more on my self management to stay as well as I possibly can. Do you have any experience of a symptom diary ? These exacerbations creep up slowly on me.

Go well

Pauline

[Ergendl in reply to PaulineHM]

When I used to work as a dietitian, I sometimes asked clients to complete a simple symptom diary with additional information, like: date, time, event, food, drink, symptom. This was to help identify triggers causing exacerbations - which may not always happen immediately. For people with lung disease an additional column for the weather might help. You can draw such a diary up on a spreadsheet or a piece of paper with columns on.

For symptoms, you could give yourself a simple code, like: B for breathless, and numbers from 1 to 5 to show severity. Other possibilities are W for wheezing, SR for sore ribs, etc.

The Likert scale is used by many health authorities. This is defined as follows:

What are the 5 grades of dyspnea?

The scale includes the absence of dyspnea (a score of 1), mild shortness of breath (a score of 2), moderate shortness of breath (a score of 3), severe shortness of breath (a score of 4) and the worst possible shortness of breath (a score of 5).

Your simplest symptom diary could just be a date and time record and a number from this scale. If you showed it to a doctor or nurse, they would understand what the figures meant.

Hope this helps.

[PaulineHM in reply to Ergendl]

Ah Ergendl thank you so much for this feedback. It is indeed very helpful.

I am researching for a patient representation presentation due in May and wanted to gain the views of others and my own use of a symptom diary. I have kept a symptom diary before, but not for a few years and found it helpful. This was at my own instigation at the time when I was going through a really bad time rather than it being an advisory from a professional.

One of the reasons for taking another look at the symptom diary is that the research on us lung patients using self management tips/hint/prompts is that these don't pick up up exacerbations at their outset. This is deemed to be, because we can often have a 'off 'day, and exacerbations are frequently so insidious and we don't pick up on them until they are very obvious! This is certainly the case for me. It is always a sloooowwww slide into one.

During this forthcoming presentation I don't want to stand there and whinge but to offer a positive way forward with suggestions of how we might be able to keep ourselves in better lung health.

Yes thank you. The dyspnoea scale can also be very helpful.

I am grateful to you.

Enjoy your day.

Pauline

[PaulineHM in reply to Ergendl]

PS. I meant to add this example which I think can be helpful. Will try.

asthmaandlung.org.uk/sites/...

Pauline