Hello So I had a nagging cough back in October 2017, My spirometry came back as normal lung function with borderline results. Im right on the line for FEV1 and my volumes are good for a person with my stats. I started coughing up blood two weeks ago for couple days and get stuffed nose at night. Im getting a cat scan and seeing an ear, nose, throat specialist. Im 40 years old former smoker for 20 of those years, last 5 were smoking only at night. Dr refuses to call it COPD yet even though I do cough from time to time with some sputum production and get dizzy once in awhile.
My question is he mentioned something funny. He said if I do develop COPD it will be caught right away since my lungs being monitered and will be extremely mild. He said he would be able to maintain a mild copd for the rest of my life. I didnt ask why he thought this, I will next visit but I thought COPD is progressive no matter what stage.....????
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Dontgiveupmyfriends
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You have done the best thing to stop progression by giving up smoking. Any progression is normally very slow and as your COPD is at worst mild most specialists would tell that you will die of another condition associated with old age before COPD.
Hi it sounds like you have background copd which might well develop into very mild copd and this is common with asthma. As your lungs are more damaged due to your asthma the normal age related lung function decline might be a bit faster in you.
As you are getting regular reviews for your asthma anyway like the doctor said it will be picked up very quickly. This happened with me as my reviews picked up I was heading for copd. Stupidly I didn't stop smoking but am still mild.
As my doctor said to me most people with copd these days die not from it but with it and old age will get me first. It is a progressive disease but it is normally very slow especially if you have been picked up at the milder stages. Some aren't diagnosed until severe but even then they will still have many years left. x
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