I need some real life examples

Hello,

I joined this site because my mother has COPD and I am a former smoker and thought the information might be useful for me as well even though I'm not experiencing difficulty at this time - thankfully.

I finally got my mother to agree to go to pulmonary therapy. The intake visit is scheduled within the next 2 weeks. My mother knows the benefits of exercise - she's always been active, and I think that's probably why she's doing well considering she's over 90 years old. I've read a couple of discussions from people who couldn't imagine exercising when they couldn't breathe, and then went to therapy and were so glad they did. I even forwarded those articles to Mom. The problem is, I don't know how old these folks were, so I feel like I'm missing something as my mother pushes back on me about going to therapy because she's just adamant about not going - twice per week she has to get up and get dressed and go, when she's never gotten any benefit from physical therapy. I keep telling her that this is pulmonary rehab and not like occupational therapy. Then I get, "Well I already know how to breathe" and "I don't know how much that will help me at my age" on and on it goes. I'm really tired of the arguments. I'm curious, how old are those of you (don't need exact age), who have gone to therapy? How bad off were you and how much did it help with your stamina? I live more than an hour away from Mom. She's in an independent living place and the food is horrible. I want Mom to still be able to stand long enough to be able to fix her meals when she's run out of things I've frozen for her to eat. I don't think she even realizes just how heavy she breathes just walking across her apartment.