How to Get the Most Out of this Book
Live Your Life with COPD: 52 Weeks of Health, Happiness and Hope is organized as a perpetual calendar with 52 chapters, one for each week of the year. Some chapters focus on seasonal events or specific concerns relevant to that time of year.
People with COPD often feel overwhelmed with all there is to learn when it comes to managing this disease: Medications, breathing techniques, nutrition, pacing, oxygen, not to mention the wide array of emotional issues. The one chapter per week structure in Live Your Life with COPD was designed to give you, the reader, one aspect of COPD to focus on per week, allowing you time to learn the subject. But as solid as this information may be, reading is still passive. This is why at the end of each chapter you’ll find “Your Turn,” which includes key points, thoughtful questions, suggested tasks and goals, as well as additional resources. “Your Turn” will help you think about how the topic relates to you, and put solutions into practice. Every effort was made for the resources in “Your Turn” to include on line resources for computer users as well as those in hard copy and phone numbers for readers who do not go online. At the end of some chapters there is a “Bonus Box.” In the Bonus Box you’ll discover something extra; additional information or inspiration having to do with that chapter. By all means, if this is your copy of Live Your Life with COPD, I wholeheartedly encourage you to write your own notes and thoughts in the book itself. If you’ve borrowed this copy from a friend or library, keep a notebook with it so you, too, can participate in “Your Turn.”
A Word from the Author - On Teaching and Learning
For thirty years I’ve had the honor – and the privilege – to teach people with COPD about the many aspects of living with this disease; from their lungs and how they work, to coping with denial and guilt and many topics in between. I’ve spoken to gatherings as small as five, I’ve made presentations to groups of several hundred at conferences and educational events, and everything in between. For me, the reward of teaching is when I look into the faces of my patients or those in the audience and see them nod, see them smile, see them laugh when I offer a bit of humor, see welling eyes as I speak of something life-changing and profound – and then, after the presentation when they come up and say, “Thank you. This makes sense to me now. I finally understand it.” Here, I humbly offer my words – words I’ve shared with people with COPD and have been told they were helpful – in hopes that they will inform, educate, inspire, and comfort you, as well. I don’t claim to know all there is to know about effective pulmonary management with COPD. Far from it. In fact, after working in this field for over thirty years, I discover each day that there is more and more I don’t know. And in the six years I’ve worked with this material, compiling, integrating, and editing, I’ve continue to learn. So, dear reader, as you make your way through Live Your Life with COPD; as you take this journey, know I’m learning right along with you.
Welcome to Live Your Life with COPD – 52 Weeks of Health, Happiness and Hope, your guide to living well with COPD. I wish for you the discovery of solid help for better breathing, thoughtful perspectives, joyful inspiration and endless empowerment. Whether you were diagnosed ten years ago, or just yesterday, come along with us now on this journey, a journey of not just weeks – but years – of Health, Happiness and Hope.
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