Emergency pack usage

[D0n49]

Hi All,

Hope you are keeping safe and well. My Mum has been diagnosed with COPD further to her battle with COVID over Christmas. Ironically I think she caught COVID when she went for a chest x-ray which had been a condition of being prescribed antibiotics for a persistent chest infection she had had on and off all year.

Anyway, the Respiratory Consultant from the hospital where she was treated for COVID has now signed her COPD care over to our GP. Unfortunately they are not very proactive, and only from reading online I was able to insist she been issued an emergency pack of antibiotics and steroids.

I was just wondering when people start using this pack. Do you use your own initiative or do your consult your Doctor first. The reason I ask is she has developed a severe throat infection, and with a barking cough I fear it is travelling to her chest. Not sure whether she should start on the antibiotics and/or steroids as a precautionary measure, given COVID has left her wheezy and she gets breathless very easily! Eager to prevent this flaring up again! Any advice would be greatly appreciated please.

[R2B_John Moderator]

What the COPD Foundation recommends is that you have a Personal Action Plan that you create in conjunction with your physician. Depending on your symptoms and how you feel, you will have Green Days, Yellow Days, or Red Days. Depending on the trend you will know when to: 1) Call your doctor's office, 2) Just start your Emergency Pack and then call, 3) Go to an Urgent Care Center, 4) Go straight to the Emergency Room.

Here is a link to the COPD Foundation's COPD Pocket Consultant that has the Personal Action Plan.

The sooner you take action, the less chance there is of it becoming worse to the point of hospitalization.John Linnell

[D0n49 in reply to R2B_John]

Thank so much John. She hasn’t been advised any of this, literally discharged from the care of the Respiratory Consultant after COVID with only a trelegy inhaler! The only reason she has antibiotics and steroids is because I insisted the GP prescribe them given she was officially diagnosed with COPD - they hadn’t classed her as high risk at the beginning of lockdown.

I can’t see the link please? Do I need to log one via my laptop please?

Thanks again for the brilliant info!!! Take care and stay safe!

[R2B_John Moderator in reply to D0n49]

You might need to locate copdfoundation.org or the American Lung Association website. Hopefully, the British Lung Association has something similar.I am on the other side of the pond.

John

[D0n49]

Thank you very much John 👍🏻 Take care!

[Nichola1971]

You need to take the steroid and antibiotics as soon as the chest flare up but as soon as you take them order another, carbosistine tablets have really helped me, I am 50 and have had COPD for 5 years, I never realized how scared trying to breathe can be, the tablets help easier to cough it up

[D0n49]

Oh my goodness Nichola, you are so young! Hope you are coping well in lockdown and staying safe and well!

Thank you for your help, will check out these tablets 👍🏻

[Nichola1971]

xxx