Conscious Body Management of Breathlessness

Within the past decade, the evolution of Lung Volume Reduction procedures has expanded the choices and possibilities for people with debilitating emphysema. Lung Volume Reduction Surgery retains a controversial status that has led to a decline in procedures, despite substantial improvements in the lives of many people. Endo-Bronchial Valve Insertion is a new, minimally-invasive approach to emphysema management, and is an evolving alternative to open surgery. §This book explores the way that people with severe emphysema and their families experience a shrinking world shaped by breathlessness. A number of social, physical and emotional strategies of conscious body management, including surgery, ease the shrinking of their existence. For some, these choices allow some regaining of the losses of the body whose automatic function was once taken-for-granted. In contrast to the trepidation with which health professionals and government bodies view these palliative procedures, people who choose lung volume reduction are willing to pursue every possibility to expand their world and are far more likely to accept the risks associated with surgery than has previously been realised.