COPD Lifestyle

10/23/2025

Feeling rushed at doctor’s appointments, here’s how to slow it down and take back control.

Self-Advocacy Guide
Chapter 3: Preparing for Appointments

This week’s chapter is all about getting ready for your medical appointments. A little preparation goes a long way toward feeling calm, confident, and truly heard.

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Chapter 3:
Preparing For Appointments

Preparing in advance for medical appointments can help you feel more at ease and ensure your concerns are clearly addressed. Even small steps, like writing down a few notes, can make a big difference in how confident and focused you feel during a visit.

Before your next appointment, take a few minutes to reflect on what’s changed since your last check-in. Note any new or worsening symptoms, questions about medications, or changes in how you’ve been feeling physically or emotionally. If something doesn’t seem right, whether it’s a side effect, breathing pattern, or mood shift, it’s worth bringing up.

You might also want to set a clear intention for the visit. Is there something specific you need clarification on? A treatment plan you want to review? An issue you’ve been putting off? Defining your goal can help guide the conversation.

If writing helps you organize your thoughts, keep a small health journal or notebook handy. A few notes jotted down over time can help you paint a clearer picture for your care team. Appointments are short, but preparing ahead helps you make the most of the time you have. You don’t need to have all the answers. You just need to bring your observations, questions, and your voice.

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Next week I’ll share Chapter 4. If you’d like to read the full Self-Advocacy Guide now, send me a DM with your email and I’ll share the PDF with you.

Do you keep notes or questions before your appointments? What helps you feel most prepared when you visit your healthcare team?

10/17/2025

Self-Advocacy Guide

Chapter 2: Know Your Rights as a Patient

This week, I’m sharing Chapter 2 of my Self-Advocacy Guide. It’s a reminder that we’re not just passive recipients of care, we have rights, choices, and the ability to shape our own healthcare experience.

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Chapter 2: Know Your Rights as a Patient

You have the right to be informed, respected, and involved in your care.
Living with COPD means regular contact with healthcare professionals, but that doesn’t mean you have to follow every recommendation without question. As a patient, you have rights that help ensure your care is safe, respectful, and aligned with your values. Knowing these rights can help you feel more confident and supported during appointments.

You have the right to ask questions and receive clear explanations in language you understand. You can request more time during an appointment if you need it to feel heard. You may review your medical records and ask for clarification on anything written there. You also have the right to participate in decisions about your care and to seek a second opinion without needing to justify your concerns.

Self-advocacy begins with understanding that you’re not just receiving care, you’re participating in it. If something feels unclear, uncomfortable, or incomplete, it’s okay to pause, ask for more information, or revisit a decision. You are not being difficult. You are taking care of yourself.

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Next week I’ll share Chapter 3, which continues to build on these foundations of speaking up and staying informed. If you’d like the full guide now, just send me a DM with your email and I’ll share the PDF with you.

Have you ever had to ask for more clarity or time during a doctor’s appointment? How did it go?

10/10/2025

This week, I’m sharing Chapter 1 of my Self-Advocacy Guide. If you’ve ever felt dismissed, unheard, or unsure how to speak up for yourself in a healthcare setting, this chapter is a good place to start.

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1.
A Guide to Speaking up with care

When you live with COPD, you carry a daily awareness of your breath, and often, a quiet strength that isn’t always seen. This toolkit was created to support that strength. It’s here to help you speak up, ask questions, prepare for appointments, and feel more empowered in your care.
Self-advocacy isn’t about confrontation. It’s about clarity. It’s about knowing that your experience matters and that your voice has a place in the decisions that affect your health.
Inside, you’ll find gentle guidance, helpful prompts, and quiet encouragement for moments when it’s hard to know what to say. You’ll also find space to reflect, take notes, and keep track of what matters most to you.
There is no one right way to use this guide. Explore it at your own pace. Print just the pages you need. Return to it when you feel uncertain or need a reminder that you’re not alone.
Your breath matters, and so does your voice.

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Next week I’ll share Chapter 2, but if you’d like to read the whole guide now, send me a DM with your email and I’ll share the PDF with you.

When was the last time you had to speak up for your own health? How did it go?

10/04/2025

Today I’m starting to share my Self-Advocacy Guide, chapter by chapter. Here’s the Prologue.

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Prologue

Self-advocacy isn’t just about asking questions—it’s about taking control of your health and preventing critical mistakes before they happen.

Navigating the healthcare system can be overwhelming, and too often, administrative errors, delays, and oversights put lives at risk. Through personal experience, I’ve learned that small, proactive steps can protect your health and prevent dangerous mistakes. Whether it’s confirming a referral, following up on test results, or ensuring that medical records are properly transferred, these actions give you a voice in your care and reduce the risk of delays.

The tools and scenarios in this guide are designed to equip you with the skills to confidently advocate for yourself. By applying these strategies, you’ll strengthen your ability to ask the right questions, make informed decisions, and ensure that your needs are met. When it comes to your health, every step you take matters.

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Next week I’ll post Chapter 1, where we’ll begin exploring what self-advocacy looks like in everyday healthcare.

I’d love to know what comes to your mind when you hear the word self-advocacy?

09/24/2025

Why Self-Advocacy Matters

Frustration with the healthcare system is what pushed me to become my own advocate.

I’ve dealt with poor follow-up too many times - unreturned calls, test results slipping through admin fingers and when I pushed for answers, the response was often dismissive, even gaslighting, with no apology. That used to drive me crazy.

I’ve seen others suffer through the same thing. A close friend went through admin hell when his dad was fighting cancer. Messages weren’t passed along, instructions between departments got mixed up or missed completely, and the stress of miscommunication made an already painful time even harder.

And more recently, my sister struggled to understand what was happening when her husband was admitted to emergency. She didn’t realize she had the right to push for clearer answers and better care, even when faced with obvious apathy.

Those experiences opened my eyes: if we don’t speak up for ourselves, or for the people we love, the system can fail us in devastating ways. That’s why I decided to create a guide for self-advocacy. I wanted to better understand my rights and learn how to leverage that knowledge to get the best care possible.

Starting next week, I’ll be sharing my Self-Advocacy Guide here, chapter by chapter. But if you don’t want to wait, just send me a DM with your email and I’ll happily share the PDF with you. It’s a short. practical guide, meant to give you the courage to speak up and get the care you deserve.

Have you ever felt dismissed in your care or in a loved one’s? What did you do?

09/13/2025

Resilience Leads to Self-Advocacy

Resilience isn’t about being unbreakable. It’s about being open-minded enough to learn, to adapt, and to keep moving forward when life changes.

For me, resilience shows up in small ways like introducing new foods into my diet, trying a different breathing exercise, or adjusting my routines to match my energy. Even choosing rest when I need it has become part of my strength.

That same openness is what leads to self-advocacy. When we’re willing to learn and adapt, we also find the courage to speak up at doctors’ appointments to ask better questions, understand our care options, and to take a more active role in our own self-care. Don’t be afraid to speak up and ask more questions, especially if you don’t understand something, or if your gut instinct feels like something is off.

What does resilience mean to you? Is it bouncing back, staying steady, or staying open to new ways forward?

09/05/2025

The forest fire smoke has been heavy these days — and even if we can’t always smell it, our lungs know it’s there. For those of us living with COPD or other breathing conditions, poor air quality isn’t just uncomfortable, it can be dangerous.

On Tuesday I even had to leave the farm early because the smoke was overwhelming. Even with an N95 mask, there’s only so much protection it can give when you’re working hard outdoors. That experience reminded me: sometimes the safest choice is to step back and protect your lungs!

That’s why it’s so important to check the air quality before stepping outside, the same way you’d check the weather. Two tools I trust are Firesmoke.ca which shows where smoke is blowing from active fires, and the AirVisual app from IQAir (https://www.iqair.com/ca/air-quality-monitors/air-quality-app), which gives real-time readings.

When the PM numbers are high, I keep windows shut, run my purifiers on high, and skip outdoor activity — especially exercise. Masks help, but there is a limit when the air is this thick.

How do you check the air quality? What’s your routine for staying safe on smoky days?

Learn about our AirVisual air quality app, Get real-time air quality data for six key pollutants from over 80,000 sensors for iOS and Android devices.

08/26/2025

Did you know your lungs are almost 80% water by weight? Staying hydrated is one of the simplest ways to support easier breathing. Dehydration can make mucus thicker and harder to clear — a big deal if you’re living with COPD.

Keep a glass of water nearby throughout the day. Small, steady sips are often more comfortable than chugging.

Add some cucumber or lemon for a little flavour if you find plain water too bland :)

12/19/2024

It’s been a while since I’ve had anything vital to say, but here I am, processing my thoughts and feelings and reaching out to anyone else who may be feeling lonely like me during this time of year.

The holidays can be a difficult time, especially in a post-pandemic world, where gathering with others doesn’t always feel as secure. Where some see holiday spirit and sharing meals with family and friends, I often see ‘flu season’and ‘risky situations’ to potentially catch a cold! So, as I watch the holiday Facebook photos pile up, the feelings of loneliness and isolation can weigh even heavier.

When I’m missing these gatherings and struggling to keep up, I remind myself to pause, breathe, and acknowledge where I’m at. Simply put, it’s okay to recognize how I’m feeling without critical judgment. If I’m lonely, tired, or overwhelmed, it’s okay to feel those emotions and not pressure myself to do more than I’m able to right now.

Connection doesn’t always have to mean physical closeness. A simple phone call, a video chat, or even a shared memory can help bridge the distance and bring a sense of connection we might be missing.

So, if you’re feeling lonely, reach out. Quite often, when we do, we realize someone else needed to hear from us, too.