It is ‘Pulmonary Rehabilitation week’ so, I sat down with a patient who wanted to share her story on how pulmonary rehab has helped her.
“This rehab program has been wonderful for me, and I’ll probably always come here unless they kick me out,” said patient, Candy Cunniff.
Candy, who was referred to the program by her physician, has been attending for almost a year.
“I think it’s 12 weeks you have here under doctors’ orders, and then you can stay,” said Cunniff. “There’s lots of people here and we all have a good time, get along, and just take care of each other.”
Melissa Dubois, a registered nurse who runs the program, said “I really think just that support of having other patients here kind of gives them that accountability and encouragement they need to keep showing up and keep progressing with exercise.”
The pulmonary rehab program has been a resource to patients for several decades, working to strengthen patients’ lungs and get them active again.
“Something that we do really well, is meet all of our patients where they're at. A program like ours is really able to tailor that to the individual and really work on making some progression with them,” said Dubois.
The program director said many of their patients are surprised by how much they accomplish by the end of the 12-week program.
Having had asthma since childhood, Candy always struggled with shortness of breath which prevented her from being active.
“I’ve got it under control now, but when I was in grade school and high school, it was not under control and I was sick a lot,” said Candy, thinking back to when her asthma was bad. “I am amazed how good I feel; I’m hardly ever out of breath and I don’t need my inhaler anymore.”
Anyone interested in the program is encouraged to ask their provider about a referral.
