COPD. Anyone have experience with it?

[soon 2 retire]

Just retired in November from Indiana to the PAC Northwest. Started having breathing problems. Had an attack a week ago and was flown to Seattle from San Juan island in a Cessna. Got sprung from Swedish Hosp. yesterday armed with an armload of medication and a diagnosis of COPD most likely caused by years of second hand smoke and whatever I encountered during 38 years of manufacturing work. Does anyone here have any experience or know of anyone having a decent active life with this. I'm ok but the family seems down.

Thank you,

Bob from Friday Harbor, WA

[madman4570]

What I will tell you below please take only as my opinion and note I am no medical authority.

With that said------------------------
I think many times the Doctors/PA's etc. grab straws guessing and just medicating from then on (which in itself can sometimes cause big problems)
Would have to know more about what actually happened to you????
Sounds like this all of a sudden came on????
In the last 3 years how many times have you gone to the Doctor for a breathing issue????(if say once a year was it because of a cold/flu that caused excessive mucus causing breathing issues.)
Or is it just this year this came on?????????/
Sometimes a virus(which also goes bacterial to the lungs)can raise havoc on someone for a year)on/off or more.
Sometimes you can have walking Pneumonia or Pneumonia that does this breathing deal.
Sometimes you can have developed triggers that lead into adult asthma????
Sounds like you were not a first hand smoker????
Also look deeply into issues with your life changes because of relocation???(new home/geographical location/plants/trees etc.)???
Any spores of mold/mildew etc.????

To me in order to be considered to have COPD you would have to have constant issues for say the last 3 years and more than just a yearly or bi-yearly lung infection??????/
Talk to your Doctor and let him know you want to get well but don't want to be a drug factory.
If you are coughing up colored gunk/would want antibiotic to clear this up and possibly a short term inhaler remedy to get you through this problem.
just don't let no one after a short term event say(you got COPD for life)(Meds for Life)etc.
Insist on a chest xray and view it also yourself.
Too many people always just think (yup that doctor thinks its this/that)
See if you can get clear/straightened around and slowly get back to your healthy self.
Might want to go Herbal also like some tALJ from Natures sunshine etc.)Try deep breathing therapy etc.
Again I am no medical authority so take my advice only as one mans opinion and try some multiple doctors.

I just have seen too many people being screwed up by Doctors that think they know(but don't)
Course coming from someone that hasn't seen one in 5 years and takes no meds for anything(I might be wrong guy to listen about much with medical stuff)
But I do have common sense and know my body better than anyone else?(including Doctors)
Anyhow---Good Luck

[Blaine]

The PNW has a whole new package of allergens you got exposed to. Fir pollen, and musty mildew for sure. I smoked heavy for a lot of years, and wheeze a bit....exercise helps.

[soon 2 retire]

Guys thanks for the rapid response. I had no problems before Aug '11. I was fixing up my house back in Indiana to sell and had an attack after putting down 10 bags of cypress mulch on a hot day. Almost went to ER but my wife's inhaler stopped the attack. I got treatment between then and moving and while butnot perfect I was functioning just fine. It got worse when I got out here. I was in the hospital 5 days and had a couple xrays, a CT scan, and started pulmonary testing. I passed out during my first test. I'm not stopping at all the medication but I have to function. Allergy testing is in the future. We never had a woodburner and now we do. I still suspect Douglas fir and cedar which is what we burn. Some of the fir has been under insect attack and some of it billows a cloud of white dust when split. So I'll make sure they test for that. Have to have further pulmonary testing in a couple of weeks when I heal some. The kids are having boot camp for me and will not stop til I've lost 30 lbs. I think I'll be seeing a naturopath down the line too. Madman in the hospital my son in law was my advocate. Once he established dominance it was all yes sir, no sir. He's a paramedic in S. King County. He's brilliant and takes no stuff plus he has a lot of outside sources for information if needed. Well that's about all the info I can supply, not easy feeling this was using my little iPhone to post. On a brighter note I really had some pretty nurses who were great.

Bob in Friday Harbor, WA

[madman4570]

Guys thanks for the rapid response. I had no problems before Aug '11. I was fixing up my house back in Indiana to sell and had an attack after putting down 10 bags of cypress mulch on a hot day. Almost went to ER but my wife's inhaler stopped the attack. I got treatment between then and moving and while butnot perfect I was functioning just fine. It got worse when I got out here. I was in the hospital 5 days and had a couple xrays, a CT scan, and started pulmonary testing. I passed out during my first test. I'm not stopping at all the medication but I have to function. Allergy testing is in the future. We never had a woodburner and now we do. I still suspect Douglas fir and cedar which is what we burn. Some of the fir has been under insect attack and some of it billows a cloud of white dust when split. So I'll make sure they test for that. Have to have further pulmonary testing in a couple of weeks when I heal some. The kids are having boot camp for me and will not stop til I've lost 30 lbs. I think I'll be seeing a naturopath down the line too. Madman in the hospital my son in law was my advocate. Once he established dominance it was all yes sir, no sir. He's a paramedic in S. King County. He's brilliant and takes no stuff plus he has a lot of outside sources for information if needed. Well that's about all the info I can supply, not easy feeling this was using my little iPhone to post. On a brighter note I really had some pretty nurses who were great.

Bob in Friday Harbor, WA

Won't bug you no more Bob!
If it was me(for now just for elimination purposes)I would get all the firewood (out away from the house)don't even get around the stuff for awhile.If you have to even once you are sure you don't have a mold or some type contamination event inside your home might be a good idea to keep your house(inside)closed up.(I mean by using alternative clean heat method or if needed in hot weather AC or in Humid weather a large dehumidifier.(keep it around 50% humidity)all possible contamination outside of living area???
If you get totally better you can evaluate each possible exposure one at a time causing you harm.
Could be you had mold spores in that mulch/you got sick/now you have an allergy to that type stuff(a trigger)and then the white mildew(older mildew that dries up into powder form)once it hits your moist respiratory tract boom(your sick)

[Blaine]

We in the PNW also have a particularly nasty black slime mold that is deadly to some people...You don't even have to see it...could be behind your walls.

[soon 2 retire]

We in the PNW also have a particularly nasty black slime mold that is deadly to some people...You don't even have to see it...could be behind your walls.

Good point Blaine. We had the house professionally inspected before moved in for mold and we're clear. The house is owned by my daughter and son in law who live right next door. And my daughter is like the canary in the mine shaft. When she is around the black mold she gets sick within an hour. So far no problems for her.

I'm just going to do everything I can on several fronts to be able to take advantage of being retired in this region. Hopefully the big guy up above will give a helpful nudge every now and then.

Bob in Friday Harbor

[Les Staley]

Soon: I know that I am alergic to cedar sawdust, eastern white cedar.. I was working in the log building trade for a few years and sanded a lot of cedar.. now if I get near it I tighten up, hard to breath.. need an inhaler.. some pollens and weed seeds effect me in the same way.. no fun for sure... Les

[.45colt]

Bob,am I sorry to hear this as the Wife and I went on a cruise to Alaska last June from Seattle and spent a day at San juan Islands on the return trip. Prayers Sent for Your Recovery.
I don't care where We live there is somethin gonna get You.

[soon 2 retire]

Bob,am I sorry to hear this as the Wife and I went on a cruise to Alaska last June from Seattle and spent a day at San juan Islands on the return trip. Prayers Sent for Your Recovery.
I don't care where We live there is somethin gonna get You.

Thanks .45, born and lived the first half of my life not far from you down in Youngstown. Not a nice place now.

Bob

[piller]

First off, don't get too dependent on inhalers. If you don't have problems, then you can actually give yourself problems with overuse of "rescue" inhalers. Second, the HFA behind the name is exactly the same as R134A air conditioning refrigerant from your car. It is used a as a propellant, but due to some cretinous fecal encephalo who wrote a book about earth in the balance, all the while he was hiding the fact that he was a huge investor in Dupont chemicals, the better propellant is now outlawed. When their patent on Freon 12 ran out, lo and behold, along came a book, which the hairy armpit women, and the men who love them, believed in as gospel and it told about a planet saving chemical from -----Dupont Chemicals. It has been researched that HFA is supposedly ozone friendly, but is decidedly human unfriendly. Please don't accept that you need inhalers and that you have COPD unless you have at least 2 independent diagnoses of it. Don't get me wrong, inhalers have their purposes, but they should be handled with respect as they can harm you. Sounds like some of the things that most of us here tend to keep around the house.

[soon 2 retire]

First off, don't get too dependent on inhalers. If you don't have problems, then you can actually give yourself problems with overuse of "rescue" inhalers. Second, the HFA behind the name is exactly the same as R134A air conditioning refrigerant from your car. It is used a as a propellant, but due to some cretinous fecal encephalo who wrote a book about earth in the balance, all the while he was hiding the fact that he was a huge investor in Dupont chemicals, the better propellant is now outlawed. When their patent on Freon 12 ran out, lo and behold, along came a book, which the hairy armpit women, and the men who love them, believed in as gospel and it told about a planet saving chemical from -----Dupont Chemicals. It has been researched that HFA is supposedly ozone friendly, but is decidedly human unfriendly. Please don't accept that you need inhalers and that you have COPD unless you have at least 2 independent diagnoses of it. Don't get me wrong, inhalers have their purposes, but they should be handled with respect as they can harm you. Sounds like some of the things that most of us here tend to keep around the house.

Piller,

Thanks a lot; I did not know that about the propellants. I guess my rescue inhaler has that propellant and I now plan to never use that unless the need is dire. For maintenance I use a nebuliser so no propellant there and 2 dry powder inhalers with the only propellant being my own inhaling force. I really want to get off this stuff and I'm hoping that an allergist and naturopath will help. Bottom line is I've got to breathe to improve; when they took me in I swear I could see the bright light in the tunnel start to form. The diagnosis was based on the CT scan, my life history, negative test for bacteria on what I coughed up , and one single pulmonary test. I only took one test because I passed out and scared the tech lady. More tests scheduled in 3 wks when I'll hopefully not go into coughing spasms during the exertion. If I'm not satisfied I'll keep the option open to go to the Cleveland clinic. Those folks have worked miracles for my family and me.

Bob in Friday Harbor

[Mike D.]

No, just lung cancer.

[soon 2 retire]

No, just lung cancer.

Point taken Mike; maybe I should just be thankful for what I don't have. Hope the Lord sends blessings and improved health your way.

Bob in WA

[Thunder50]

Sounds more like an allergic reaction. You breathed in the mold,fungus, allergen, and got it in your lungs and your body responded. I know Cedar gets me, and thw wife is allergic to Redwood.

You did move into a totally different environment, with stuff that your body has not been exposed to before, and you have no immunity to what is there.

Hope you get better.

[AJMD429]

The PNW has a whole new package of allergens you got exposed to. Fir pollen, and musty mildew for sure. I smoked heavy for a lot of years, and wheeze a bit....exercise helps.

Logic would make me think that if your symptoms suddenly worsened when you moved, that BlaineG is right - something else is going on. Granted, you could have had mild enough COPD that you didn't have symptoms, then something else came along (mild CHF, allergies, a fungal respiratory infection) that was mild enough not to be obvious, but aggrivated your underlying symptoms enough that the COPD was seen and blamed. On the other hand, you may have no COPD at all, or more likely, "some" COPD. Imaging and endoscopy and lung function tests all have roles in confirming what is going on.

Regardless, treating "it" will do you good, and COPD doesn't usually get much worse (may get substantially better) once you quit the 'exposure'.

I do think secondhand-smoke is exaggerated in danger for political reasons, even though of course ANY junk you breathe in isn't good for your lungs.

[soon 2 retire]

The PNW has a whole new package of allergens you got exposed to. Fir pollen, and musty mildew for sure. I smoked heavy for a lot of years, and wheeze a bit....exercise helps.

Logic would make me think that if your symptoms suddenly worsened when you moved, that BlaineG is right - something else is going on. Granted, you could have had mild enough COPD that you didn't have symptoms, then something else came along (mild CHF, allergies, a fungal respiratory infection) that was mild enough not to be obvious, but aggrivated your underlying symptoms enough that the COPD was seen and blamed. On the other hand, you may have no COPD at all, or more likely, "some" COPD. Imaging and endoscopy and lung function tests all have roles in confirming what is going on.

Regardless, treating "it" will do you good, and COPD doesn't usually get much worse (may get substantially better) once you quit the 'exposure'.

I do think secondhand-smoke is exaggerated in danger for political reasons, even though of
course ANY junk you breathe in isn't good for your lungs.

Thanks AJ, Blaine, and everyone else who answered. I got useful information and advise from each of you as well as a lesson that things could be worse. I will definitely have allergy testing done.

Bob in WA

[AJMD429]

Think about sarcoidosis, too. Long shot, but worth considering.

[Newtmaker]

I was diagnosed with COPD 15+ years ago (about 55 yrs old). 4 years ago my pulmonologist said I had asthma. He gave me Advair and that basically solved my breathing problems. Today I can walk several miles with no problems. I also had triple bypass 2.5 years ago and that also made life much better! Get the weight off, get exercise on a regular basis, eat right. I also would recommend you follow the advise of others as far as allergies. They can crop up suddenly, especially after a move.

Prayers are with you!!!

Walt