Going home after your visit
COPD flare-up — advice for adults
How to look after yourself at home after a flare-up of your COPD, and when to get help.
You have been treated for a flare-up of your COPD — a worsening of your usual breathing and cough. Here is how to manage at home, and when to get more help. Please read this and keep it handy.
Your care details
To be completed by the team before you leave.
this Emergency Department your nearest A&E other:
none needed
Call 999 — or get urgent help — if any of these happen
These can be signs that your flare-up is becoming serious and needs checking straight away.
- Much more breathless than usual, or breathless even at rest
- Your lips or fingertips turn blue or grey
- New chest pain, or you are coughing up blood
- New confusion, or you are unusually drowsy
- A high fever, or feeling very unwell, and your rescue treatment is not helping
CALL 999 if you are too unwell to get to hospital, call 999.
Caring for yourself
- Take your inhalers as prescribed. Use a spacer to get the most from them.
- Finish the full course of any antibiotics and steroid tablets, even when you feel better.
- If you have a rescue pack and self-management plan, follow it.
- Keep gently active within your limits.
- If you smoke, stopping is the single best thing you can do — ask for support.
What to expect
Recovering from a flare-up takes time. For a while you may notice:
A lingering coughMore phlegm than usualFeeling tiredBreathlessness easing slowly
You should slowly get back to your normal level over a week or two.
Where to get help
999
Life-threatening emergency, or a red-flag symptom above
111
Urgent but not life-threatening, or you're not sure — call or visit 111.nhs.uk, 24/7
Your team
Use the department phone in Your care details above