Possibly got COPD

[JanKindon]

Hi there all, I'm Jan I'm 50 years young and seem to spend a lot of time at the Docs .. beginning to think I'm a hypochondriac lol.

Anyway the long and short of it is I'm a non-smoker always have been, tho my parents both smoked, my ex smoked and now my daughter smokes ... why do I mention this, well my Doc thinks I may have COPD due to passive smoking ... great cheers family grrrr lol

Generally healthy altho, I was diagnosed with perennial rhinitis 16 yrs ago, an underactive thyroid 10 yrs ago, IBS a few years ago and started with the perimenopause about 4 years ago ... now about 1 n half years into the menopause

Anyhoo about 5 years ago I got really poorly in Winter started with chest infection ended up with pleurisy ... took about 3 mths to get over it properly (post fatigue and all that shizz)

The following Winter I was poorly again, with bronchitis, pharyngitis, then tracheitis. After that bout I was left with a constant cough and the feeling of needing to clear my throat all the time and a feeling of a lump in my throat, sooooo, I was sent for a barium swallow and cos the Doc thought I may have a pharyngeal pouch (I don't) but I was told that my oesophagus and swallowing mechanism is out of sync lol, soooo I'm also taking omeprazole.

Anyway the long and short of it is the Doc has previously said I just have a habitual cough as I'm always clearing my throat. But as I have just been ill again for about 4 weeks she's sending me off for a Spirometry test which is Thursday.

Apparently I was diagnosed with asthma in 1996 (I wasn't told at the time) but I have had Bricanyl inhalers in the past, cos of wheezing,so the Doc did an asthma review and told me I don't have asthma (I already knew that lol) She listened to my lungs (had a nice lil wheeze going on) but was also experiencing light headedness and dizziness/nausea., and fatigue Also developed a cold 2 weeks into the illness (caught the virus from my daughter cheers luv), not a runny nose, just a stuffy nose.The feeling of dryness in my throat and that I needed to cough something up meant I've been constantly coughing which caused blinding head pains (really can't deal with that at all)

I've had to carry on working through it all as I'm a self-employed ironing lady ... no work, no pay

I'm feeling tons better now tho my lungs ache and I still have the need to cough, tho I do cough up lil bits of phlegm now whereas I wasn't earlier in the illness.

I'm pretty resigned to being told I have COPD, which strangely I'm not concerned about, asit would just be nice for someone to say, yes you have this and yes you have had it for 5 years possibly and no you aren't going nuts lol

Anyway expect to see me hear more often to share my ups and downs with you all, after Thursday lol xx

[Hidden]

I hope that you get a good result from your gp, copd is not always caused by smoking but is a major factor in getting copd.I wish. you well and hope you dont have copd.but life will still go on if you get a bad result!!!! you keep positive...

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

More things than smoking cause copd but they keep that quiet in the news as doing nothing for smokers gets no bad publicity for the politicians.

Hope there is no copd asthma was a better choice by the doctor and more likely when lung problem began early.

good luck stay positive

[Hidden]

Nothing wrong with haveing tad or more to say ... Looks like bus load of trouble stoped at your door too

But yes to find out whats wrong can worry more than finding out ... Anyway alwas plesure reading your post

All the best and lok forward to your nrxt post

[JanKindon]

thanks all, it could b so much worse, my mum is a lung cancer survivor (4 yrs now) but my dad wasn't (died 2 years ago)

gotta be honest I'm finding the fact I have a lazy eye which has developed over the last year and I get double vision more of a problem lol very frustrating. Only been since I started wearing varifocals, and quite manageable most of the time but proper kicked in bad during the time I've been ill ooer lol

[Hidden in reply to JanKindon]

Got to stay positive ... Is hard being ill under tory govermeant

All the best

[elian in reply to Hidden]

It's hard being ill ....... regardless of who's in government daz ! The last lot weren't much better .... Liverpool Care Pathway springs to mind

[JanKindon]

cheers Daz

[Lynne1955]

Hello Jan. don't worry, having COPD is not great, but it's not a death sentence either. Things could be A LOT worse.

Having it really doesn't affect my life much, and being positive and keeping fit is very important.

Lynne xx

[elian]

Hello and welcome to our community Jan We look forward to your input and at the same time I'm sure you will learn a great deal and recive lots of support from the members here

Keep on keeping on ...

[JanKindon]

Thank you all, now I'm really scared Lynne, you mentioned the word I hate the most .... exercise lol

[Hidden in reply to JanKindon]

Agreed ... Only exercise am going to do is my right to vote ... For know that is

[Puffthemagicdragon]

Hi and welcome Jan.

[Hidden]

Hi Jan,

I may have something that might give you pause for thought. I too was diagnosed with COPD a few months ago but as I have a tendency to allergies I thought that I would explore further. Mine seems to be as a result of a bad reaction to our dog but prior to that many years ago I was experiencing the exact same symptoms that you describe and after a lot of searching found that it was wheat and dairy that was the problem. I gave them up and life changed completely within days. Every now and then I try re-introducing one of them at a time but there is always a bad re-action. Further exploration revealed that dairy especially is known to cause phlegm which causes coughing. I was previously diagnosed with bronchitis, IBS, asthma and various other things which all went away when I stopped eating them both.

I am no expert but maybe you could find out if there is any such thing happening with you. My route to the discovery of my problems was by visiting a homeopath. Good luck and I hope that your situation improves.

[Hidden]

Hi,jan

Good luck for Thursday.i am going for mine week tomorrow so would be interesting to hear your outcome.good luck and pray all goes well for you

John x

[JanKindon]

Hi again guys n girls, thanks for all your replies and support and an especially massive big thank you to the person who spammed their american wares on my post .... most enlightening

Good luck to you too Jambo, and yes Jeanmargaret I will certainly speak to my Doc about this too xxx