Jools can i ask you something? I've been thinking about you, how quick did it take your COPD to progress, how long was the progression, hope you don't mind, I think it would help to have some idea?
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I have had this thing for over 10 years only I kept it well hidden because I was a smoker who didn't want to quit. I was diagnosed in 2006 when they called me in for a routine asthma check and I couldn't get the thing to budge when I blew on it. That's when they sent the COPD nurse to my home to help me quit smoking, but by that time I had stopped walking anywhere.
I used the shopping trolley like a Zimmer frame or the Internet to shop. Housework became more and more impossible, I can remember scrubbing some outdoor table once and being too puffed out to continue after only half a minute. It got to the point where the only place I could get any relief from pain and discomfort was my bed, so once we got a wireless router I took the laptop and made a life for myself up here in my bedroom.
I have been on two rehabs so far. They have tried everything to get me to move but nothing works. I told my COPD nurse Jacki about Geoff, and she said, great if he can get you moving it will be a miracle. lol.
Truth is I think I have given up. Even the transplant team have lost interest in me. I while away my days...correction my nights talking to my friends on the Internet and reading and learning stuff that I can either use or pass on. I don't leave this room unless Lola comes to see me and that is usually every 2 months or so. I am too weak to pick her up or hold her so I can only watch.
What more can I say? With every time I get sick I lose a bit more lung capacity.
Why don't I exercise more, go back to rehab, try harder? Simple answer hyperventilation. I still cannot find what is causing it and when it is happening, in full throw I can do nothing. It stopped briefly for over 3months just recently. I felt so much better, my sats had gone up, I could walk to the toilet rather than use my commode by the bed. I was thinking positively and was so much happier.
Now they have returned and it is as before and I am so disappointed because the good weather is here and I want to go out and enjoy it. It is so frustrating.
Does that answer your question? Sorry for wittering on. lol
