Recovery

John Muir Health offers a comprehensive pulmonary rehabilitation program dedicated to making you feel comfortable with breathing again after your treatment is complete.

Most people who go through the program are very pleased because they can’t believe how much they’ve accomplished.

Before the program begins, we will ask you to list out your goals and perform an assessment test. If you still smoke, we will help you quit.

The seven-week program meets for four hours a day, twice a week in the first four weeks, then for 90 minutes a day, three times a week for the last three weeks.

During the program, you will learn:

• New breathing techniques to help you breathe easier
• How to pace yourself
• How to conserve energy and do more with less breath
• How to keep yourself healthy once the rehab program ends

We also put you on an exercise program to help you maintain your health and endurance, guided by a physical therapist’s recommendations on what you can and cannot do. At first, it might be daunting to do any exercise, but by the end of the program a large majority of our participants are able to perform each of the exercises they’re assigned to do for 20 minutes.

An additional benefit of the program is you will be in classes with up to nine other participants who share the same challenges as you. Seeing what others are going through often helps you on your road to recovery. Many of these classmates return together for the maintenance exercise program we offer.

If you need to be equipped with an oxygen tank to assist in your breathing, we will guide you on the available options, such as the portable oxygen concentrators, which give you much more freedom and flexibility, and assist you with becoming comfortable with the equipment.

Some other resources available to you include:

• Lung cancer support groups
• Lung cancer resource library
• Counseling and pastoral (religious and spiritual) support
• Physical therapy
• Nutritional counseling
• Pharmacy services