Hello! I have been a doctor for 21 years. My name is Georgy Olegovich Sapego. This article will list what is good for people with pneumonia after they leave the hospital.
Today they asked about what to do, if pneumonia was treated in the hospital, they let me go home, and what to do next, they did not tell.
There is a whole list of useful activities.
All the exercises listed below are best done under the supervision of a physical therapy instructor while still in the hospital. Hospitals are different. Sometimes the instructor is literally in intensive care with patients engaged, and sometimes he is not seen at all.
Plus, now they are afraid to prescribe something to people for breathing, because the standards of rehabilitation are being developed literally on the go. Some are afraid.
So. You can do all this at home if there are no suspicious signs listed below:
- increased shortness of breath;
- saturation below 95%;
- blood pressure below 90/60 or above 140/90;
- heart rate above 100 per minute;
- body temperature above 37.2 degrees;
- weakness increased;
- there was pain in the chest;
- coughing;
- a veil before the eyes;
- dizziness;
- heartbeat or heart failure;
- imbalance;
- sweating appeared;
- headache.
If any of the above appears, then you cannot continue to exercise without a doctor's examination.
Breathing through closed lips
We have already discussed this method with you in the article on the relief of shortness of breath. Breathing through closed lips helps to relieve shortness of breath and slightly straightens the airway. A very safe technique.
You need to sit in a comfortable chair or chair so that your feet are normally on the floor, relax your arms and neck. Then you need to inhale slowly through the nose, counting to two. On inhalation, the stomach should be inflated. The lips should be closed as during a whistle and exhaled slowly through the closed lips, counting to four. You need to exhale freely, do not force the exhalation and do not hold your breath.
So you can breathe for a long time. At least a few breaths should be done 4 to 5 times a day. This helps maintain correct breathing. The trick is to exhale longer than inhale. Well, so that a slight positive pressure due to closed lips straightens the airways.
Breathing simulator
The same positive expiratory pressure, which straightens the airway, can be achieved with a breathing trainer. Simulators are different. Some work on inhalation. You will need one that works to exhale.
That Chinese study on the rehabilitation of patients with pneumonia that everyone is now referring to, it used the Philips simulator as in the picture below. Most likely, there are other suitable simulators, but the technique was worked out on this, and it is possible to regulate the exhalation resistance on it. And it should be about 60% of your individual maximum pressure. This should be asked by the doctor.
Do three sets of 10 exhalations through the device with a break between sets of one minute.
Cough
Ideally, after all this closed-lip breathing and resistance-breathing machines, you should clear your throat. Coughing correctly is beneficial because it clears the airways.
In the simplest version, patients were previously asked to cough every two hours. It was necessary to take a deep breath and cough up 2 - 3 times in a row on one breath, squeezing out all the air as much as possible.
That Chinese study suggested coughing three sets of 10 times.
Diaphragmatic breathing
Everyone has heard that it is useful, but not everyone knows how to do it with a dumbbell. It is not joke. You need to lie on your back 2 hours after eating, put a load weighing 1 - 3 kilograms on your stomach and take 30 deep breaths and exhalations, inflating your stomach. This is a diaphragm workout.
Puffs
Respiratory muscles need not only be trained, but also stretched. If they had to cough or struggle with shortness of breath, they remain shortened.
You need to straighten your shoulders, spread your arms to the sides and up, turn your palms forward and up. It turns out a sort of sipping in the style of "the morning meets us with coolness."
Healthy people do this to stretch the pectoral muscles. But after pneumonia, you need to do this exercise while lying on your back. In order not to faint. You need to lie on your back, bend your legs to smooth out the lumbar bend, and stretch (as in Figure 1).
All these exercises need to be done daily for a month and a half. It is imperative to consult with your doctor in advance.
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