18 September 2017 – 1st anniversary!
The ninth meeting of the ILD Support Group and 1st of the new 2017-18 season and the groups 1st anniversary took place at St Georges Hospital on Monday 18th September 2017 between 16:30 – 18:00.
The topic this week was “Keeping up with your Hobbies and Interests” and was presented by Occupational Therapist and senior lecturer, Catherine Gray. Catherine has previously spoken to the group back in April and we were delighted to welcome her back for the restart of the group meetings following the summer holidays.
It was also noted that this new season coincided with World IPF Awareness week (16 – 24 September). The session was well attended and we welcomed some new attendees to the session, who has travelled all the way from north London! Catherine opened the discussion by encouraging participants to consider what techniques helps most with the various symptoms and challenges we all experience when living with ILD. This generated a good discussion among the group and a list of strategies were developed and recorded onto a flip chart and reproduced below.
To summarise the ‘Top Tips’ were as follows:
- Pausing – Have plenty of rests as required throughout the day
- Be aware of your limits
- Being adaptable – make the most of ‘good days’
- Planning the day and/or activity
- Planning is particularly important when traveling be it by car/tube/train or flying
- Take control – What do you want to do and when – How will you get there – Who can help you
- Shared experience with one another, this can be very helpful as others in the group will be able to identify similar issues and may have developed some helpful coping strategies.
World IPF Week: 16 – 24 September 2017
St Georges ILD Support Group 