A Tribute to the Cardio Queens

Last Wednesday one of my new patients was a 63 yo lady with severe COPD, now this lady was actually in for some Ix totally unrelated to her respiratory condition but someone had just noticed that she was very breathless with ambulation and maybe she would benefit from some ambulatory O2………anyway it turns out that this lady has NO IDEA of her respiratory condition, what it is, how it affects her or what she could be doing to help herself. It then was delegated to me to be the one to educate her and “sell” her the idea of pulmonary rehab and the ways in which she could improve her QOL. This was slightly daunting as this lady was pretty set in her ways and not that unhappy with her current state…….to add pressure before I went in to see her my curtin supervisor said, “Now do you have a plan for how you’re going to go about this because this first meeting and what you say to her will be a very important decider of whether we have “sold” the idea of pulmonary rehab and self mx.” So in I went and did my best to convey that we had a lot to offer her and help her with her disease……..to cut a long story short she was thrilled to learn that there was something she could do to improve her QOL and manage her state better, Sue and Nola would've been proud………it was a good reminder that what you say/the way you present your case is vital if you’re aiming to get your patient on side!!