EMPHEYSEMIA

[TracyCI]

Hi was diagnosed in October 20 with copd, was told then that it wasn't anything too worry about by my then gp,fast forward afew months during lockdown and was hospitalised, couldn't breathe..steroids nebuliser and antibiotics and was sent home,I was smoker for some 35 years...back in October I took my GP'S word and carried on smoking....now too this present day its been over 7 months since my last cigarette, I've went too the specialist last aug and had spirometry tests before hand,specialist has said that I've got empheysemia and it's mild,never have I been so scared,since giving up up cigarettes and going threw the menopause I've put alot of weight on,I do work and pretty active with the work that I do but get tired,I wanted advice on breathing techniques and what's the best form of excercise..diet too take

[wheezyof]

Hello,Well done giving up smoking.

For the best advice on breathing and coping:-

British lung foundation

Ask to be sent to pulmonary rehab. (normally 6 weeks of 2x a week sessions, simple exercise and lots of advice)

A normal healthy diet, avoiding processed foods, lots of fresh/frozen veg and fruit.

Drink plenty of fluids (easy on the booze!)

Gentle/moderate exercise that you are comfortable with and enjoy.

While doing anything from walking to gymnastics say out loud "This exercise is doing me good" If you can say that easily, do a little more. If you can just say it you're about right. If you can't say the whole thing without a struggle, slow down.

Please don't be too scared having bad lungs, with all the help on here life will carry on.

[corriena]

Hi. what a stupid Dr. Well done for giving up smoking its the best thing you could of done for yourself. A healthy diet plenty of veg and fruit with low fat protines are a good start. Any exercise is good. Find something you can enjoy its easier to keep it up if you are enjoying it. But if you find it hard to start small and build it up. If they are doing pulmanery rehab in your area its a good place to start.

When you were first told you had copd you (probably) had empacemia. I would complain about that dr if he had given you proper advice in the beginning you would of known how to slow down its progresion. As information is power and the more we know the better we can cope and deal with are illness and keep areselves well and out of hospital. Ask if thear is a breath easy group in your area good place to meet people with similer problems and get good info. Also the BLF helpline is a good place to get help for any question. 😷

[hypercat54 in reply to corriena]

I think she meant to say the dr advised her to give up smoking, not the reverse.

[corriena in reply to hypercat54]

Saying its nothing to worry about is pritty stupid as we all know the sooner you start to look after yourself the more you slow down the progresion. When i was first diagnised my Dr made sure i had bundles of info every leaflet he could lay his hands on and was very suportive of me but i was lucky x

[CDPO16 in reply to corriena]

Your GP was excellent corrienna. When I was first diagnosed a practice nurse got me a prescription for ventolin and sent me on my way with no information at all. I'm a retired nurse so maybe there was an assumption that I knew all about it which was very far from the truth. Much of what I learned was from information on the former BLF website and from joining this forum and learning from others.

[corriena in reply to CDPO16]

Yes i am very lucky with my Dr they all know me so well by now even the receptionist recognised my heavy breathing over the phone and said is that you corrinea i will get the dr to add you to his round. This was a few years ago. Yesterday i phoned and got a dr call back in 25min. Unfortunatly sent to A&E 6 hour wait but yes im very lucky with my dr

[CDPO16 in reply to corriena]

Exceptional if one of your doctors regularly does home visits. GP practice how it should be. Sorry that you ended up in A&E yesterday though. Hope you aren't too bad today xx

[CDPO16]

Hi and welcome. Well done for stopping smoking. It's good too that in spite of your smoking history your emphysema is at a mild stage. Good advice from the others so far, I'd just add that the BLF has been renamed as Asthma+Lung UK and their website has lots of useful information. Many of us still think of it as the BLF. Best wishes

[Damon1864 Volunteer]

Hi and welcome lovely to meet you, I agree with what the others have said, also you can go on YouTube and get excercisesand breathing techniques, just type in breathing excercises for lung conditions and same for excercises. Hope this has been helpful and you keep posting. Have a lovely day and take care 😊 Bernadette and Jack 🐕 xxxxxx🌻🌻

[JJ_7]

Hi TracyCl. What a tremendous success to quit smoking. Well done. No easy feat! I won't repeat what others have said here as there are some excellent suggestions from others. Welcome

[captainchaos1]

Tracy look on You Tube, tap in lung exercises, there's quite a few to get you started while sitting down. You can choose what suits you, seem to have helped my breathing a lot. and don't fall into the trap of vaping, it's equally as bad for you. Good luck John youtube.com/watch?v=Kp8WK4h...(Not working as expected?)

[TracyCI in reply to captainchaos1]

Hi John,thankyou for your reply I haven't vaped or will even contemplate it,in my eyes its defeating the object that's my view ,may be ok for others but that's it for me ...Will take a look on utube...thanks again

[captainchaos1]

Hi Tracy, it's my pleasure, I smoked for over 50 years, gave up about 10 years ago but took up vaping thinking it was safe till i was diagnosed with emphysema. Regret every year now but I'm still feeling young and listen to all advice. I won't beat it but I'll hang on as long as I can. Go girl! John

[Alberta56]

Welcome to the forum. Lots of good advice from your fellow lungies. I can only add that I was advised to drink lots of water or, failing that, change to decaff tea and coffee.

[FewThereBe]

After reading your post to my wife (who has COPD and is on 24/7 oxygen) she said: "It's never too late to diet!"

She speaks from experience. She was 289 pounds at her highest weight in 2016 and has gotten down to 166 pounds today. She has lost 67 pounds over the past 15 months, so fairly gradually, as weight loss ought to be. She is 70-y-o and thanks God every day.

She was also diabetic and on insulin and metformin for years. As part of the weight loss, she is totally off both of them! No insulin. No metformin. All this past year.

She also got off diuretics, omeprazole, blood pressure meds, and statins. All this past year. She is down to some pain and thyroid meds. Amazing grace for sure.

How? Mainly by eliminating carbohydrates and junk food.

We got tons of food diet ideas by looking at the Keto diets. We are not following the Keto diet exactly, just getting ideas for low-carb foods and meals. I am also eating pretty much everything she eats. I have no health issues like she has had, but thought it supportive to stick to the low-carb diet also.

Youtube has lots of info on Keto diets. We followed a LOT of information from the "Dr. Eric Berg" Youtube channel. He is a chiropractor by training and has lots of good alternative health ideas. He is also a proponent of "intermittent fasting" or "IF." Basically, the idea is to consume your meals within a set period of time out of the day, say 6-8 hours. For example, eat two main meals a day, a meal at noon and a meal at 6pm. (And no snacking outside of these times). The meals are low-carb and higher-fat. The fat helps take away the cravings during the non-eating times. The "fat" seems counter-intuitive to losing weight, but it is "good fat" and managed properly; and, along with the IF, it works for a lot of people.

I will leave it there. I didn't mean to write a book.

My wife was a life-long smoker also, so glad to hear you have stopped. God bless you!

[TracyCI in reply to FewThereBe]

Thankyou for your advice,I shall look up keto diets and get some ideas,I wish your wife and you my best wishes

[FewThereBe in reply to TracyCI]

One addition: My wife has a sweet tooth for sure and has worked around it by discovering all of the low/no-carb alternative sweeteners that can be used instead of refined sugar. Dr. Berg introduced us to this in many of his Youtube videos.

NOT alternatives like Splenda and aspartame, but alternatives like: monk fruit, erythritol, and stevia. Except for the stevia, neither one of us had heard of these alternatives before, and found out about them while investigating Keto.

Again: we are not following the formal Keto diet itself. We just got low-carb food meal ideas and "IF" ideas from them. The Keto diet can be very "hard core" for some folks, but we are not doing that at all. All things in moderation.

God bless!