Hello, Bess and WELCOME! I can totally relate to your feelings about being diagnosed with COPD! Although you believe yourself to be too young to have COPD, I assure you that unfortunately your age is not all that exceptional! You haven't mentioned whether you smoke or not and that makes a huge difference not in terms of blame but in understanding this horrible disease and more important, knowing what to do about it! I was diagnosed almost exactly 2 years ago on March 14. On March 20 I had my first of 717 Smoke FREE Days! If you smoke then quitting smoking is by far your first priority! Nothing else you do will help if you don't quit smoking NOW! If you are not a smoker, then you may have a hereditary form of COPS called A1AT. Either way it is very important that you know exactly what your FEV1% (lung capacity) is because taking care of yourself means keeping that number from dropping and how can you do that if you don't know what it is? Find Out! I believe that the symptoms you describe have as much to do with depression as with COPD. That is perfectly normal and understandable ....but you have to at some point get off that couch and get busy doing for yourself what you can! That means a lot of learning about lifestyle changes you will wish to make before you get any worse! Despair doesn't help! Has you Doctor sent some medicine with you? If so, I don't care how many hoops yyou have to jump through - get and use that medicine! It will save your LIFE! Also, get a pneumonia vaccine and a influenza vaccine ASAP! Other important urgent changes include but are not limited to Exercise and Nutrition! Learn what you need and make these changes! Do it now or pay later! Bess, even now, you still have much to be hopeful about! I know that all of this seems overwhelming but you DO still have the POWER to control your illness and not let it control you! That's very good news! So get to work, depression or no, and learn, act and CHOOSE BREATH NOT DEATH! We're with you all the way! My advice is purely personal! I am not a medical professional and there is no substitute for getting Medical diagnosis and advice! |
"MDJunction to me is a life saver... when i first was diagnosed with Scheuermann's Disease i wrote a message to a page i found on google, hoping that they could help me.... you'd never know it but that weird feeling (you know that one where it feels like someone actually cares) came over me when i opened my email next day to find that someone on the other side of the world (at the American Medical Library)had read my message while i was sleeping, and there low and behold was the address to MDJunction.... well it is everything to me, i live it breathe it and love it!!!!! I have found many people who are struggling with similar issues banding together to help each other. It is the best place in the world, and i couldn't think of another place to go to meet so many lovely people....
! I am reading up and also changed my eating habbits. I have to keep praying to stay with it. I am eating fish and chicken, brown rice, vegetables and fruit and homemade, low cal smoothies for treats. I pray i lose this weight, too. Not eating made me sick and put me in bed for a long time. We need 1200 calories each day to breathe. So it was no wonder i dropped like a rock. Anyway, i am really trying, Thomas. Thank you for the reminders.
