It’s time to go to urgent care or call your provider if your COPD symptoms include:
- Coughing more frequently than usual
- Feeling more tired or restless than usual
- Fever of 100.4 or higher
- Having trouble breathing while completing routine tasks that require physical activity
- Mucus changes color and appears gray, green or yellow
- Needing more oxygen than usual or using rescue inhalers or nebulizers more frequently
- Needing more pillows than usual to sleep or needing to remain sitting up to fall asleep
While these symptoms may not be immediately concerning on their own, if left ignored, they may quickly worsen. It’s always best to consult with your provider or visit an urgent care center when you experience these symptoms before you find yourself in a health emergency.
When to Go to the Emergency Room for COPD Symptoms
When pronounced COPD symptoms quickly intensify or present seemingly out of the blue, do not hesitate and seek emergency care immediately.
COPD symptoms that you should go to the emergency room for include:
- Experiencing trouble breathing while resting
- Feeling more confused or sleepy than usual
- Rescue medications failing to provide relief
- Your fingernails, toenails or lips turning blue
Have someone drive you to the emergency room or call 911. Do not try to drive yourself, as your symptoms could continue to get worse.
What to Do When Your COPD Symptoms are Under Control
When your COPD symptoms are manageable and under control, continue with your daily routine. But be vigilant. You’ll want to pay attention to how you’re feeling to pick up on indications that your body may be experiencing a potential incoming flare-up.
By reaching out to your provider, or visiting an urgent care if your provider is unavailable, you’re doing everything you can to keep feeling your best.
Finding Treatment for COPD
Thankfully, COPD is treatable. You can manage your condition with the help of a health care provider. With treatment, many people can still do the things they enjoy, including socializing, daily activities and feeling energized throughout the day.
Quitting smoking and avoiding tobacco smoke are the first lines of defense when living with COPD. Your care provider may recommend pulmonary rehabilitation to learn strategies for improving your quality of life, breathing better, exercising and eating a well-balanced diet. Certain medications may help manage any coughing or wheezing caused by COPD.
Most importantly, talk with your health care provider about your COPD flare-up warning signs and when to seek care when your symptoms are not responding to daily medications. They may encourage you to create an action plan based on a triple-zone strategy.
Creating a COPD Action Plan for the Three Zones of Symptoms
When you talk with your provider about living with COPD, your provider may create a COPD action plan that outlines what actions to take on a good day, a bad day or in an emergency.
Consider the following action plan from the American Lung Association. It breaks apart your COPD symptom severity into three groups: green, yellow and red. Each zone of symptoms will have a corresponding response to it. Whether it involves visiting an urgent care or the emergency room depends on the severity. Your medical provider should make and update your COPD action plan during every visit.
Each three-zone strategy will vary from patient to patient, but generally they follow a similar pattern.
Green zone: On green zone days, you sleep well and your appetite is good. If you have a cough, it’s nothing more than a small annoyance. You are able to maintain a typical level of activity and exercise. If your symptoms fall in the green zone, maintain daily medications, use oxygen as prescribed, continue exercising and eating well, and avoid tobacco product use.
Yellow zone: During a bad day or COPD flare-up, you may feel more breathless than usual and have less energy for daily activities. You might have more mucus and use an inhaler more often. You might have a persistent cough and feel like you have a chest cold. These symptoms may keep you from sleeping and eating well, and your medicines are not helping.
When you find yourself in the yellow zone, continue taking daily medication and add a quick-relief inhaler. Rest up and if symptoms don’t improve, call your provider or visit urgent care.
When you’re in the yellow zone, your primary goal should be preventing yourself from reaching the red zone.
Red zone: At this point, you need urgent medical care because you’re experiencing severe shortness of breath while resting. You may be experiencing fever and chills, feeling confused or very drowsy, and having chest pains. Coughing up blood is also a clear indication of being in the red zone. These are all reasons to seek emergency medical care immediately.
It’s important that you, your medical providers and any caregivers or relevant family members know your COPD action plan to fully support you through COPD flare-ups.
More to Read
- Should I Go to the ER, Urgent Care or Primary Care?
- The Facts About COPD and Preventing Lung Infections
- Build an Action Plan for COPD Flare-Ups
- The 6 Most Common Triggers for COPD
Medically reviewed by Scott Burger, DO and Jason Birnbaum, MD.
