If you’ve been thinking that your elder with COPD seems to be continually exhausted, you might just be correct. Fatigue is extremely common with COPD and it’s not a good situation.
Fatigue Is Worse than Just Being Really Tired
When most people think about fatigue, they picture it as something that simply means that the person is really, really tired. It’s more than that, though. Fatigue is tiredness that doesn’t improve for your senior after one or even two nights of good sleep. Fatigue when combined with COPD is a vicious cycle that keeps your elderly family member locked into declining health.
Your Elder’s Body Works So Much Harder with COPD
COPD makes breathing incredibly difficult for your family member. Breathing becomes so difficult, in fact, that your senior’s body has to work much harder in order to get the oxygen it needs. The more effort and energy her body expends, the more she’s going to have to deal with fatigue.
She’s Not Able to Exercise as Much
When you couple fatigue and COPD, you realize that your elder doesn’t have the energy she should have for something extra, like exercise. Ironically, exercising a little bit every day can help to improve your elderly family member’s energy levels. The right exercise can also help to improve your senior’s ability to breathe. Talk to your elderly family member’s doctor about what types of exercise your senior should be engaging in on a regular basis. She may need to gradually work up to exercising daily, even for a few minutes.
Depression and Fatigue Work Together
A common side effect of depression is fatigue. When you factor in that COPD can also contribute to depression, you’ve got a recipe for fatigue to flourish. Depression and fatigue go hand in hand because it’s so exhausting to deal with the effects of depression. It’s a combination that can leave your senior even more weakened than she was already.
Quality of Life Suffers
Basically, an elder who has COPD and develops fatigue experiences a lowered quality of life. Your elderly family member isn’t able to do what she has always loved to do and this impacts her greatly. Dealing with the fatigue as comprehensively as possible helps her to change this situation.
Getting a handle on fatigue can help your senior to improve her overall experience with life, even with worsening COPD. Elder care providers can help your elderly family member to adapt her daily routine in order to lower her fatigue.
If you or a loved one are considering Elder Care Services in North Hills PA, please call and talk to the caring staff at Extended Family Care of Pittsburgh at (412) 693-6009. We will answer all of your questions.
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