Travelling with COPD : I will still travel whilst I can
My mum shares her experience of travelling with COPD and offers some tips that she has found from travelling with her recent diagnosis the more we travel together the more we are learning.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease also known as COPD is a long term condition that affects the lungs. It has different severities at the moment mine is classed as mild but it will progress as time goes by.
Getting diagnosed with COPD
I am still new to this COPD malarkey it has been a year since I was first diagnosed. I have to admit I’ve been having symptoms for well over 3 years it wasn’t until I took worth action that I finally found out that I had COPD.
I was not just getting old and out of breath for no reason. It was kind of a relief to find out what was wrong with me but now I have to find ways to cope with this condition which is going to be a learning curve.
I have basically been housebound for the last 12 months as I get out of breath doing the slightest things even washing up can take it out of me.
Don’t get me wrong I never used to be a fitness fanatic before this but at least I could go to work and walked around the shops but even now I cannot do this.
Anyway I am not going to let this condition ruin my life completely one of my passions is travelling I love seeing new places but it is hard when you cannot even walk to the end of the street can a break.
Travelling with COPD
Having a daughter who is a travel blogger makes me want to travel more and I cant always do the trips that I want to do but I am still going to travel as much as I can I just need to take extra steps to ensure travel is enjoyable.
At the moment I do not have the confidence to travel alone but with the support of my daughter we both now travel with a chronic illness we do it slower but at least we are still travelling.
So I thought I would share with you some of my tips on how I am travelling with COPD.
My first tip is to take your time. I used to love rushing from place to place to see all the sights in the short time that I has in a destination but I now know that this is no longer possible.
Slow travel means I might not be able to cram in as much as much as I used to but it means I now absorb more knowledge about the things that I am seeing say for example where I might have rushed round a tourist attraction in the past I will now take time and sit down and actually taking what is happening around me luckily one of my favourite hobbies is people watching and this can be really interesting when travelling.
Mention your disability at tourist attractions – there is sometimes something they can do such as giving you a different route to get around lift access but isn’t available to everybody and you can even get discounts if you are registered disabled and you need a carer.
Use a walking aid – I have a walking stick, at first I felt a bit silly using it but it is now a crutch (sorry about that bad pun) but I do find it really useful. It also makes people around me more aware that I am having difficulties so they don’t tend to bang into me when I am going that little bit slower.
