Respiratory Therapy
Kathy Semke, RRT RCP, AE-C
My Name is Kathy Semke. As a Respiratory
Therapist at Guthrie County Hospital, I want to help you return to
normal activities of daily living without being fearful of becoming out
of breath or exhausted. I work with a team of experts to help you look
at all aspects of your breathing difficulty. Our team approach
allows you to find a solution! Pulmonary Rehabilitation can improve
your quality of life. This program is designed to help you
meet the following goals:
We will be using several approaches in our efforts to meet these goals, including: exercise training, breathing retraining, nutrition training, medication information, and education. When you are short of breath, you become out of shape. It is uncomfortable to exercise and you worry that you may be hurting your body doing the things that add to your shortness of breath. Activity becomes even more difficult, you become even more fearful and short of breath, so you do even less. Eventually any activity becomes difficult and you try to do as little as possible. Living with lung disease can frustrate, anger, or depress you. Some individuals deny that there is a problem. These emotions are normal, but they can interfere with your quality of life and your ability to care for yourself. Fortunately, Pulmonary Rehabilitation will help you break this cycle. Regardless of what type of lung disease you have, Pulmonary Rehabilitation will benefit you. Pulmonary Rehabilitation can help prevent infection and complications of lung disease. It may even prevent your disease from becoming worse. With the help of trained professionals, you will review and understand your treatment plan so that you can reduce your symptoms of shortness of breath, coughing, and wheezing. By the end of Pulmonary Rehabilitation, you will have increased strength and endurance in order to complete activities of daily living. Pulmonary Rehabilitation is not a program you can forget about after completion. Pulmonary Rehabilitation will teach you what to do in order to maintain the goals that you will achieve throughout the program. We encourage you to bring a close friend or family member to participate in as may rehabilitation sessions as possible so that they can support you and understand your lifestyle and treatment plan.
• Reduction of dyspnea (shortness
of breath)
• Improvement in quality of life
• Increase in exercise tolerance
and performance
• Enhanced ability to perform
daily activities
• Better knowledge of lung disease
and lung care
• Improved sense of well being
• Reduced hospitalizations and use
of medical resources
We will be using several approaches in our efforts to meet these goals, including: exercise training, breathing retraining, nutrition training, medication information, and education. When you are short of breath, you become out of shape. It is uncomfortable to exercise and you worry that you may be hurting your body doing the things that add to your shortness of breath. Activity becomes even more difficult, you become even more fearful and short of breath, so you do even less. Eventually any activity becomes difficult and you try to do as little as possible. Living with lung disease can frustrate, anger, or depress you. Some individuals deny that there is a problem. These emotions are normal, but they can interfere with your quality of life and your ability to care for yourself. Fortunately, Pulmonary Rehabilitation will help you break this cycle. Regardless of what type of lung disease you have, Pulmonary Rehabilitation will benefit you. Pulmonary Rehabilitation can help prevent infection and complications of lung disease. It may even prevent your disease from becoming worse. With the help of trained professionals, you will review and understand your treatment plan so that you can reduce your symptoms of shortness of breath, coughing, and wheezing. By the end of Pulmonary Rehabilitation, you will have increased strength and endurance in order to complete activities of daily living. Pulmonary Rehabilitation is not a program you can forget about after completion. Pulmonary Rehabilitation will teach you what to do in order to maintain the goals that you will achieve throughout the program. We encourage you to bring a close friend or family member to participate in as may rehabilitation sessions as possible so that they can support you and understand your lifestyle and treatment plan.