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4 Common Stressors When You're Living With Pulmonary Fibrosis
Dealing with uncertainty in any situation can cause both emotional and physical anxiety. Being forced to wait for an answer is enough to significantly impact a person’s ability to cope with daily life.
For example, when you hear about a tragedy, it can be excruciating waiting to hear if all your loved ones are safe. A smaller, but equally trying example of dealing with uncertainty, might be waiting for important test results from a doctor or hospital that could decide the course of your treatment.
These two situations are examples of uncertainty waiting on outcomes, but what about the uncertainty that can come with an outcome, result or diagnosis — but not knowing how to proceed with that information? Unfortunately this is the case for many patients living with pulmonary fibrosis (PF).
PF patients, who are dealing with a progressively fatal lung disease that causes scarring and eventually prevents oxygenation, often know the name of their illness but there remains much uncertainty about how to cope with their disease. Partially, this uncertainty comes from the lack of knowledge surrounding the disease. Patients diagnosed with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) face more uncertainty as doctors don’t understand the etiology or the cause of the disease itself.
Below are other common causes of stress when you’re living with a life-threatening disease such as PF:
Emotional uncertainty
When someone’s mortality is challenged following a diagnosis like PF, this can cause extreme uncertainty. The thought of premature death is not pleasant to talk about and it can be considered a taboo topic, but for patients living with PF, it’s important to acknowledge. However, the emotional impact can be very difficult for a patient, who might be asking questions like: What will dying from this disease look like? What if I don’t get to do all the things in my life that I want to? What will my premature death do to the people I love most? These questions (and many others) are important to consider, but can cause a lot of emotional anxiety for a patient.Financial uncertainty
Living with a lung disease and not being able to breathe will eventually force a patient out of the workplace. With job loss comes income loss, which can cause a lot of financial uncertainty for a patient. The cost of medications and therapies furthers the financial burden for a patient and their family. As a result of the financial implications of this disease, patients are left with a lot of financial uncertainty on top of so many other unknowns.Physical uncertainty
Even for individuals not living with a lung disease, it is easy to understand how much not being able to breathe would impact a patient’s physical abilities. With a disease like PF, a patient can go from stable to critical within a short period of time and from something as common as a cold or flu virus. When this happens, a patient’s physical condition can change drastically especially if there is a drop in their lung function. With this possibility always a risk for patients, the physical uncertainty of this disease can prevent patients from living their lives fully.Social uncertainty
Participating in social events may not seem significant to others, but for patients with PF, it can sometimes be the highlight of their week. With that said, patients with PF often have to cancel social events due to exhaustion or feeling ill so there is a lot of social uncertainty that comes with living a life-threatening disease. Unfortunately, this uncertainty can sometimes jeopardize a patient’s social circle and compromise friendships.As a patient living with pulmonary fibrosis, are there other things that your disease makes you feel uncertain about?
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