Ginger Joblin

When Ginger Joblin was diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), she was devastated. “It’s depressing. It was daunting and scary,” Ginger remembers. So, when her pulmonologist said pulmonary rehabilitation could help keep symptoms at bay, she thought she should give it a try. She’s glad she did.

Pulmonary rehabilitation is an individually designed program of education, exercise and breathing retraining for people with pulmonary disease. Programs often include 36 sessions at 60 minutes per session. “People with chronic lung disease who do pulmonary rehab have better quality of life, they perform daily activities with more ease and they have decreased hospital admissions,” says Pulmonary Rehabilitation Therapist Kim Ryan.

Seven years after her initial diagnosis, Ginger is dedicated to going to Pulmonary Rehab at Grand View Health twice a week, which she credits with her ability to keep up with the things she loves to do, like shop and go out to dinner with friends. “There are days I don’t want to go, or that I need to push myself to finish my workout. But I keep going back because I know that it’s good for me and I really do feel better when it’s over.”

In addition to treating people with COPD, pulmonary rehab also can help people manage asthma, bronchiectasis, chronic bronchitis, emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis, sarcoidosis and environmental or occupational lung disease. Learn more: https://www.gvh.org/pulmonary-rehabilitation