María Martín (68 years old) has COPD and is a spokesperson for the Association of Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (APEPOC) of the Community of Madrid. In the weeks of confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic, she has kept morale high, despite knowing that her illness places her among the risk groups. “We are going to overcome it, we are going to overcome it,” he says in a video posted on the organization’s website, which brings together many other testimonies of encouragement for others affected by this same ailment.
“Then we will have to go to make up for lost time going down hills, because climbing them costs us a little more,” adds María with a touch of humor in the recording.
María has lived through the quarantine knowing that the families of COPD patients are always watching out for them. In the video, she advises those who suffer from the same thing as her: ” We must not take risks, we must not go out, we have to move and do respiratory gymnastics to overcome these moments and maintain our quality of life .” His relationship with COPD began many years ago, although the deterioration of his health has been progressive, as often occurs in this disease that is still invisible to much of society.
In 2002 she suffered pneumonia with pleural effusion and had to operate on her. “Since then, he had annual or every six months check-ups at the Hospital de La Princesa (Madrid). I did my spirometries and everything was within what is acceptable. ” In this situation, he continued to work an average of ten or twelve hours a day in a nursing home. Even today she talks with some of her colleagues, who tell her about the drama they have experienced there due to the coronavirus. In 2015, María took a vacation and did not return to work.
Triple therapy
“Bronchitis, pneumonia … In three months I was admitted to the hospital three times,” he recalls. For two years, his treatment has been based on triple therapy (the combination of two bronchodilator drugs and a corticosteroid, administered with a single inhaler) . “I had a hard time adjusting at first, but now that I’ve gotten used to it, I think it’s great. Having all the medications in one is very good ”.
For her, the advantage is obvious. The biggest drawback is that once a year your doctor must renew the visa that allows you to follow this treatment. “Last year I went to pick up my medication from the pharmacy and they couldn’t give it to me. My family doctor did not know that I had to make a new report to renew it. If you are a chronic patient and it is what you are taking, it seems to me an absurd management. The conclusion is that I was without medication for two days and with oxygen on ”.
Neither patients nor healthcare professionals understand this administrative obstacle, which prevents many patients from benefiting from pharmaceutical innovation. The Community of Madrid has temporarily suspended this rule due to the emergency we are experiencing, so triple therapy prescriptions for COPD will be automatically renewed for the duration of the pandemic. However, María is confident that in her next review in October she will be able to validate her prescription without the need for procedures that also find no justification in the savings. As she says, “a single drug costs no more than three.” Mariano Pastor, president of the Spanish Federation of Associations of Allergy Patients and with Respiratory Diseases (FENAER), also trusts that the measure adopted in the Community of Madrid will be consolidated when we return to normality: “The important thing is that it be extended to other communities and be maintained in the future, and that it reaches all the sick ”.
Also, triple therapy doesn’t just benefit people with COPD. It also helps the planet, according to Nicole Hass, spokesperson and technical advisor for APEPOC, who explains that concentrating the drug in a single treatment reduces the environmental impact of inhalers.
In this health crisis, associations of patients with respiratory problems are providing essential support to those affected by COPD. Through their websites they provide resources of all kinds so that they can maintain their quality of life now that access to health services is more limited. Among these tools, those related to respiratory physiotherapy are especially valued. In this sense, both the recommendations of the College of Physiotherapists of the Community of Madrid for those affected by COVID-19 and the Respiratory Physiotherapy Program promoted by FENAER stand out, which helps to perform these exercises from home in a guided manner. It all adds up to keep COPD sufferers as good as possible while the storm lasts.
By Esther Martín del Campo
