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Family members of people with asthma sometimes have a responsibility to help the patient cope with certain tasks. However, family members of patients should be aware that modern treatment makes it possible to control even the most severe form of this chronic disease. Therefore, if your asthma symptoms are difficult to control and prevent a loved one from taking care of or doing a favorite activity, it may not be serious but difficult to control asthma.
Experts note that some asthma patients misjudge the severity of their illness, pay little attention to controlling asthma symptoms, and experience unfounded fear of starting treatment. As a result, some patients do not seek medical attention in a timely manner and receive less treatment than they should.
Even patients diagnosed with severe asthma can feel good and maintain quality of life.
President of the Lithuanian Allergy and Asthma Association, allergy specialist and clinical immunologist. Violeta Kvedarienė remembers that having annoying symptoms is not normal and that you should feel better.
The doctor identifies the main steps that family members should help people with asthma.
1. Recognize the need for assistance
If the final stages of treatment do not help the patient and other causes of severe symptoms are ruled out, a severe form of asthma is detected. However, even patients diagnosed with severe asthma can feel good and maintain quality of life. Therefore, they need to constantly understand and evaluate their condition, and if they notice that the symptoms are poorly controlled, don’t be afraid to seek help.
Patients or even loved ones can perform an asthma control test of the same name, which is easily found on an Internet search engine. They will have to answer the following questions:
- How often does asthma interfere with normal work?
- How often does the patient suffocate?
- How often does wheezing, coughing, shortness of breath, pressure, or chest pain occur at night?
- How often do you have to take emergency medicine?
If you suspect that your asthma is not well controlled or have collected up to 20 test scores, this information should be shared with your doctor. Only by knowing what the patient’s true well-being is, the doctor will be able to take appropriate measures and help ensure control of asthma symptoms.
2. Make friends with the disease.
Patients who have heard an asthma diagnosis at first find it difficult to accept this message and feel compelled to change their daily routine. Even if the disease is successfully controlled with medication, some give up hobbies, travel. Others distance themselves from social life for fear of an asthma attack in a public place or for environmental factors that can provoke it.
The patient’s family members should remember that their family member may face serious psychological challenges and feelings of anxiety are a common companion of the patient. It should be remembered that many people have asthma and, as a result, their treatment is very advanced. And by properly following your doctor’s instructions, you won’t have to fear an unexpected worsening of symptoms or rely on the help of loved ones.
Also, it is important not to be afraid to accept help from other people and turn to professionals. Family members of patients themselves often also have difficulty coping with the relative’s illness and adapting to life’s changing circumstances. Therefore, after making sure that the pulmonologist has prescribed the most effective asthma treatment based on the patient’s actual condition, it is possible to turn to self-help groups or a health psychologist.
3. Don’t be afraid and strictly follow the treatment regimen.
Doctor doc V. Kvedarienė emphasizes that doctors now have every opportunity to help patients with severe asthma feel healthy and energetic. Biological drugs have also been prescribed to patients with severe asthma in Lithuania for several years.
“This treatment has been provided free of charge in Lithuania until relatively recently, so it still irrationally attracts people.” But in fact, biological therapy is a long-term treatment that effectively reduces the symptoms of the disease, the number of exacerbations, the doses of conventional asthma medications and the need for emergency medications, “says the allergist.
According to the specialist, patients who feel better sometimes think that the disease has been cured and can no longer take medications. Although this feeling is the goal of doctors, it is very important to remember that this chronic respiratory disease is not curable, so it is not possible to adjust or discontinue the prescribed treatment for patients at their own discretion.
Family members should monitor, or at least constantly ask, whether a family member with severe asthma is taking the medications that are properly prescribed and trying all treatments recommended by doctors.
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