How to prevent pneumonia

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There is currently no vaccination or cure for COVID-19, only the symptoms can be combated. However, you can do even more if you are already in bed with symptoms of the new coronavirus: prevent pneumonia!

The tricky thing about COVID-19 is that it often starts with a fever and dry cough, but can spread to pneumonia, which is really dangerous, especially for older people.

But how can you prevent pneumonia?

For this, the page “Nursing Philosophy” has published practical tips. Monja Schünemann gives simple advice on how to prevent pneumonia if you are already sick in bed – because lying around can promote pneumonia.

• Please do not lie down in bed like with a cold. If your condition is even close to it, stay seated with your upper body up, but at least 30 degrees.
• Raise your arms several times a day to make your lungs wide. Breathe in and out deeply. Try to cough.
• Secretions can only be coughed up if you have drunk enough. If your doctor has not prescribed a drinking amount, please drink enough liquid so that the lungs can produce secretions at all. If it cannot, the secretion thickens and you can no longer cough it up. Raise the cups! With non-alcoholic drinks that you like.
• If you still have an old “puster tube” (spirometer) somewhere, now is the best time to do it. Hourly would not be an exaggeration. Please keep it out of the reach of others. There are germs from your exhaled air on the mouthpiece and on the device itself.
• If you don’t have such a device, you can do it differently: Blow through drinking straws. Or have balloons brought along and blow one up every hour. Please also keep straws and balloons out of the reach of others. There are germs from your mouth there too. Blow up the same balloon every hour. This is very tiring, but it prevents atelectasis.
• Off to the window! Fresh air is important. Ventilate your room too. The old wisdom that getting pneumonia by getting cold is nonsense. The lungs NEED fresh air. And no, even “train” doesn’t make you sick. Every breeze of air helps and prevents. With the air in the lungs.
• Do not take cough suppressants. Cough is what protects you. Always out with it. Be happy about every cough. Please put the handkerchief in your personal trash bag that you close (the other blog has hygiene tips)

Important:
This advice is no A guarantee that you won’t get pneumonia from the new corona virus can help to prevent it.
In addition, there is, as the blog points out, no experience of the exercises in connection with COVID-19! These exercises are purely for prevention and are used by nurses in bed-ridden patients!

Source: nursing philosophy
Article image: Shutterstock / by Yok_onepiece

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