Connect with others living with health conditions
If you have smoked more than 100 Sickerettes in your Lifetime then you may very well be at risk of COPD. 15 Million Americans have been diagnosed with COPD and 12 Million have the disease but don't know it! Think you're too young? Some people in their 20s have COPD
COPD is a chronic, debilitating, progressive incurable smoking related illness. Here's one take on what it's like:
What this video doesn't capture is the all day every day nature of the illness. Early diagnosis will help you to manage it better. Quitting Smoking is the only known way to slow the progression of the disease. No treatment or medication can do that!
So if you haven't been tested for COPD - GET TESTED! [Tell your Doctor that you want a Spirometry Test.]
If you have been diagnosed with COPD - QUIT SMOKING!
If you have quit smoking - protect your Quit as if your LIFE depends on it - Because IT DOES!
I probably would still be smoking if a specialist I was seeing for a different reason all together hadn't listened to my lungs and tell me that he didn't like the sound of them and set me up with a spirometry test which showed COPD but I had no idea and am very thankful for the test because it scared me into quitting smoking which is totally the best decision I've ever made in my life.
Marilyn
Hi Thomas. Do you know why physiologically it is progressive. What causes it to get worse even though you quit smoking? That doesn't make sense to me.
I think the damage was already done from smoking and the disease progresses but it SLOWS the progress if you quit, I suspect I would be dead now if I had not quit. I am not saying that to be dramatic, I just don't think my poor lungs could have taken any more. I came out of work yesterday into the hot and horribly humid air and I put my things in the car and I seriously thought I would pass out before the air conditioning kicked in, I was GASPING for breath. I used my rescue inhaler but it was the air conditioning I needed.
Our smoking addiction is also progressive which is why one puff puts us right back to where we were when we quit.
Hi, Barbara!
Good question!
COPD is an exageration of the natural aging process of the lung, it can vary greatly from one individual to the next. Each individual is different and the illness presents differently in them. So if you were born with A1T1 genetic COPD or if you acquired COPD from a pollutant such as cigarette smoke, silicon, or asbestos the progression of the disease has been initiated. The speed of progression depends on genetics and stopping the pollutant from continued damage.
Thank you for more education on COPD. Sometimes the Docs. just don't take the time to tell us everything we should know. I learn more each time I visit the DOC, but I learn way more than that from you!, so Thank you!
Terrie 86 DOF
Read Thomas's blog here, he does this many times a month. If u smoke u will get sick....it is not the other guy/gal...throw them smoke away...join EX
Hello! In the about me section on my profile, I went through a regular day on 24/7 oxygen! I don't want or need pity!! This is just ....so you know information! COPD is not choosey!! Act now! NOPE
Terrie
Thanks for all the effort and research you put into this Thomas. Both my parents were smokers and had COPD, I was exposed to 2nd hand smoke at an early age, smoked a pack a day or more for over 30 years and exposed to asbestos during naval service. I had the Spirometry exam and an upper chest CT scan and everything checked out fine for me. I am glad to have this peace of mind and probably would not have been checked had it not been for all of your advice here.