My husband has moderate copd

[Caroldq]

We went to a New Year celebration and there was a woodfire. Since then he has been bad with breathless etc. Is this a flare-up?

[Ergendl]

Possibly. I find I'm sensitive to smoke from fires, barbeques and cigarettes now and I have moderate COPD - but I make sure I'm not in contact very long, so my bouts of breathlessness are usually brief then. He might also have picked up an infection at the party.

[gingermusic]

I have COPD also and I cannot tolerate any form of smoke whether from cigarettes fires or BBQ so he should stay well away. He should settle down and use his inhalers as instructed. If not book in with his GP

[O2Trees]

Just to clarify - a flare-up or exacerbation is when your condition worsens for any reason for a period of days or more. Your husband should see his GP to check what is going on. Im also sensitive to smoke and it's essential if you have copd to avoid any pollution you possibly can. Copd is huge in Africa where in rural areas cooking is on fires in unventilated spaces.

[anng1814]

Hi,

It sounds as though your husband may have an allergic reaction to wood fires. I have suffered from this since I was very young- breathlessness and very bad headaches. This could have triggered a flare-up, but it is probably best he gets this checked out by a doctor.

[Caroldq]

Thankyou very much ladies for your replies. Shall be seeing GP. Also my husband has not been taking his inhaler but now has started to.

[agammyt]

We had a wood burning stove for five years and I know my symptoms worsened in that time. Hadn't realised just how much pollution is produced by wood burning fires - we also lived in the Algarve for 10 years and had a wood burning stove there so my poor lungs suffered as I did not know how much damage wood fires could do. We no longer have a wood burning stove.