It’s common for people with a serious illness to experience trouble breathing. This is especially true if they have a lung condition.
Your loved one might describe the feeling as “shortness of breath,” “tightness in the chest,” or “fighting for air.” To be honest, it can be scary to experience, and difficult to watch.
Fortunately, there are ways to make breathing easier.
Raise the head of the bed. If you don’t have a hospital bed, use a wedge or pillows. Lying flat makes breathing more difficult. Sitting more upright relieves pressure on the chest.
Run a fan. If your loved one enjoys it, you can even point the fan to blow air directly towards his or her face.
Open a window. Fresh air is refreshing! If weather permits and the air is clear (no smog or smoke, low pollen count), this can be a natural way to promote easy breathing.
Add moisture to the room. Hot air and a dry throat can make it harder to breathe. A simple humidifier adds moisture and soothes the airways.
Turn to lie on one side. Some positions are more comfortable than others. Experiment to find out which ones feel best for your loved one.
Changes at home:
No smoking. This applies to the patient, but also to others. Second hand smoke clogs the air and makes it harder for the lungs to do their job.
Eliminate or reduce strong smells. Perfumes, bleach, household cleaners, and paint fumes all represent chemical particles in the air. These irritants add to breathing problems.
Remove dust and replace air filters. A thorough dusting will remove this common irritant. (Best to do this on a day when your relative can be out of the house!) Replacing furnace and air conditioning filters will also reduce particles in the air.
Which of these strategies will work in your situation?
Anxiety is a natural response to not having enough air. It’s almost a reflex. Addressing the anxiety can do a lot to improve your relative’s daily experience of life.
Deep breathing. When people get anxious, they take shorter breaths and breathe more quickly. This can actually make things worse as shallow breathing does not clear the air sacs of the lungs so there is less room for bringing in fresh oxygen. Taking slow, very measured breaths, is not only calming, it also helps solve the problem with lack of oxygen. Sitting upright, inhale slowly for a count of 4. Then try for a sustained exhale over a count of 4. Start again.
Guided imagery. Visualizations can help ease the mind and reduce anxiety. With closed eyes, have your loved one imagine a place that is calm and peaceful. Perhaps the beach or the mountains. Draw on as many senses as possible. Describe the smell of the ocean, the wind on the face, the sound of the waves lapping gently on shore. Immerse your loved one in a tranquil environment.
There are other options that your health provider can order that will address trouble breathing.
Ask us about prescribing:
Breathing exercises. Depending on your loved one’s condition, there are simple exercises that can help. Something as simple as singing favorite songs might help. It doesn’t feel like exercise yet it naturally (and joyfully!) encourages deeper inhales and stronger exhales.
Oxygen therapy. Providing your loved one with more concentrated oxygen is another way to improve feelings of breathlessness. There are significant lifestyle changes that come with using oxygen. There can be no smoking in the house. (Oxygen is extremely flammable!) And your loved one will need to have a canula (plastic tube) across the face under the nose. It also requires keeping an oxygen tube nearby. (They often come with little carts, or small canisters that can be carried in a large handbag or backpack.) For all that, oxygen therapy can be extremely effective in providing adequate air.
Medications. Depending on the source of the breathing problem, there are drugs that can help. Ask us about prescriptions that would be most effective for your relative’s situation.
I would be in a world of madness without Ashelee and Diane. Their genuine care and follow through provided peace during the most trying days of my life. So thankful for Solace and their entire support team.
Solace Hospice cared for my husband during the last weeks of his life. Our team was compassionate, professional, and always available to provide direct care, arrange transport, or just talk. We felt encompassed by their excellent care and commitment throughout this journey.
As an Aging Specialist, a Senior Resource Center and over 20 years experience with Seniors “Solace Hospice” has excelled in comfort care and palliative care! They have been one of our preferred providers for years in Arizona. Their involvement in the Industry, their caring staff and their professional approach is appropriate when families need them most. Costel Roman the Director of Business Relations is the biggest advocate I have met in his Industry. Solace Hospice you are appreciated by thousands of families and Senior Living Communities in Arizona.
We could not be more grateful to Solace Hospice and their staff for taking care of our loved one, even though he was on service a short time. Everyone was so sweet to us and him and were very responsive to our needs and requests. The staff was skilled, informative, and available at any time of the day or night. Most importantly, they care about us. They spend time with us. We laugh together and cry together. We always looked forward to visits. Thank y'all for everything.
Been working with Solace Hospice for over a year and never cease to amaze me! They cater to each individuals needs and go beyond the scope of service. Stephanie, Sammy, Diane and Costel are doing a fantastic job, giving 110% of love and hard work and making sure everything that it’s needed arrives within 24 hours. If you’re looking for a great Hospice give them a chance, they will never disappoint.
I can’t say enough about Solace Hospice. The level of care and attention to personal detail is so much higher than the other hospice company I dealt with. My family recently experienced the loss of our mother followed by our father in fairly close succession. All I can say is thank you Solace and I wish I had discovered you sooner. My mom’s passing was handled by another company. I can tell you they are not the same. Solace operates with a premium degree of care and compassion during such a difficult time
I cannot thank Solace Hospice enough for the amount of love and support they have provided my family with during this hard time. They were attentive, caring, informative and overall extremely experienced in this field.A special thanks to Maggie, Bevery, Katie, Janet, Diana, (just a few of the many) for the help you provided.Thank you all so much!!!Enea
I would like to express my gratitude to Costel Roman - Director of Business Relation at Solace Hospice, Thomas Fedzin - Owner of Solace Hospice during a difficult time in my life. There is never an easy moment to loose a loved one. Costel Roman and Solace Hospice have helped my mother to go to Heaven and be with the angels peacefully. God bless all of you for being by my side!!!
Solace Hospic is Definitely #1 Hospic in Arizona a team that’s Compassionate towards the needs of not only patients but owners and also caregivers. Costel Roman is so Professional and always gets the job done . Ask him what he can’t do he will tell you what he can do to make the experience working with solace comfortable as possible. Solace will always be my go to Hospic.
I absolutely LOVE working with Costel and and Beverly!! Costel (AKA Roman) has excellent communication and I value his team immensely! I highly recommend this team if you are looking for a hospice company with great communication skills, friendly faces, and caring hearts!
As a nurse and the owner of several assisted livings, I have had many encounters with different hospices.Solace Hospice has been amazing and has gone above and beyond for my patients and their families! Always helpful, always receptive to the patients needs and always there when needed.Thank you Solace for the outstanding care and dedication your company and your staff provides.
We are so glad and relieved to have met Costel Roman of Solace Hospice.When he came to our assisted living homes and introduced himself he sat with us and explained Solace Hospice’s vision and approach to compassionate high quality care.We were very pleased to hear that residents and families needs are above all else.These past months we worked along side them with a few of our families in our homes .We cannot praise Costel and all of Solace’s staff Enough on the quality of care,professionalism demonstrated and the compassion showed by all of Solace’s staff to the families and our team.We will only recommend a company to our families if we know and experienced first hand that they are among the best in their profession.Congratulations to Solace for putting together an outstanding team. You guys definitely exceeded 5 stars! Luis Pescador.
We were recently reintroduced to Solace Hospice by Costel Roman and Jesse Watson, two of their community liasons, and in the process were impressed with their client-focused service. The biggest selling point for us as a group home is that they were not going to be a hospice that simply stopped fighting for a client and allowed them to die. Many of our residents and their families initially are fearful of the word “hospice” and typically think it means a death sentence. Many of them are not ready to give up the good fight and Solace has been a partner with our home to ensure the resident, their family, and our group homes are all respected and active partners in the continued care and needs of the resident. Everyone from their intake staff, RNs, and CNAs was compassionate, caring, and dutiful in their tasks. Special mention goes to the Nurse assigned to our home, Sabrina. She helped us guide the resident and their family through the difficult process of passing away, and her knowledge and compassion for my resident and her family will never be forgotten. Owning three different group home locations has given me plenty of experience and exposure to many different Hospice companies, but without a doubt, Solace Hospice is one of the best. I can not recommend them enough, whether you be a group home, a family member of a loved one, or someone looking to work at a hospice company. Thank you Costel, your team provided me much peace of mind. I look forward to continue to working with your team.
I cannot begin to describe the gratitude and appreciation my family feels about the experience we had with Solace Hospice. I didn’t know quite what to expect at the time when my father was on your service. My father had such great care! My concerns were quickly relieved. Thank you for the kindness and compassion you have given to us and for the genuine concern for my father and for our family. We sincerely appreciate your tireless effort to care for all your patients and their loved ones, and your eagerness to assist at every turn.
I own 5 assisted living group homes around the Phoenix area. I am always relieved when my residents and their families choose Solace Hospice to help their loved one. I can always rely on Thomas and his staff to take care of my residents. They interact incredibly well with my caregivers and offer assistance 24/7. And they back it up. There have been numerous times when we needed some help from Solace in the middle of the night. Someone from Solace would come out to the home without hesitation and take care of everything. Thank you Thomas for running such a wonderful company!
Great professional help during a hard time. Thank you for making things easier to manage during our time of need. They gave our loved one lots of comfort any time he needed it. Which added relief to me as I knew he was in good hands. Thank you so much Thomas and staff!
Thomas and staff were always friendly and available to help us. We learned so much about our Client’s situations. They are definitely very knowledgeable and confident of what they do to help our clients in our group home meet their needs.
It’s common for people with a serious illness to experience trouble breathing. This is especially true if they have a lung condition.
Run a fan. If your loved one enjoys it, you can even point the fan to blow air directly towards his or her face.
No smoking. This applies to the patient, but also to others. Second hand smoke clogs the air and makes it harder for the lungs to do their job.
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Oxygen therapy. Providing your loved one with more concentrated oxygen is another way to improve feelings of breathlessness. There are significant lifestyle changes that come with using oxygen. There can be no smoking in the house. (Oxygen is extremely flammable!) And your loved one will need to have a canula (plastic tube) across the face under the nose. It also requires keeping an oxygen tube nearby. (They often come with little carts, or small canisters that can be carried in a large handbag or backpack.) For all that, oxygen therapy can be extremely effective in providing adequate air.
