C.o.p.d

My mother in law has been suffering from lots and lots of chest infections, general tiredness and bloating. She has been so unwell that since May she has had four home visits from doctors, antibiotics almost every week and steroid inhalers.

Finally, I rang her GP and told him how concerned I was that although this lady is 83 and had been a heavy smoker I couldn't undersand why she was suddenly so ill.

The GP amazed me by saying that she had been diagnosed with COPD Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease many years ago and as it will it had become worse as she got older.

You could have knocked me down with a feather because we didn' t know this and when I told mother in law she was surprised too. It appears this information had not got through to MIL.

Anyways she has this and now we must deal with it. Has anyone else heard of this? know someone who suffers from this? maybe is a sufferer too? I am going to contact a few places to see if I can get some information but you lovely lot usually have got some experience of most things good or bad.

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I had a horse with it

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I think it's fair to say that any lifelong heavy smoker will have this in some degree later on in life, it's the ultimate price we pay for our cigarettes...

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I have it! I thought that you knew that, CC! Yes, it's an unfortunate result of a lifetime of smoking. Much as I hated stopping I had to, no choice, am on Spiriva which is a daily inhalent. I was on Advair too, but the Doctor decided Spirva was enough. At one time till my breathing improved I was on oxygen 24/4, then just at night, and am off it now. I have an Oximeter which tests the amount of saturation in your blood: I'm normally in the 94-95 range which is OK, 88 or less is dangerous. Hope this helps; any questions, ask!

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I had a feeling that you might have this but to be honest I had never really heard of it. My MIL was given some sort of inhaler about 20 years ago and she said that it caused her to hear music so her GP took her off of it. Somehow she has slipped through the wire and has never really been treated before.

Now she knows what she has I have been advised to make an appointment to see her GP with her and ask about the inhaler and the Oximeter, and the to ask about the stomach bloating which has been put down to her swallowing air which cannot be dealt with by her lungs.

I didn't know that you had this, gosh it is not an easy disease and the woman from the British Lung Association tells me that you can get depressed. She mentioned that MIL should excersise a little each day but I don't think mother will go for that.

How are you coping and how long have you had this?

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Cassie, what happened to the horse. I can't imagine how it must have been although I read on the British Lung Foundation website that certain animals can suffer from copd.....Did your horse smoke?

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CC, it had been coming on very slowly for years. I really noticed it about 2 years ago, when I was experiencing increasing tiredness; needed to stop and rest while walking to the market, up the stairs, etc. Now part of that was also the anemia, which was caused by a very slow blood loss from the colon cancer (too little to show signs in the stool) .Anyhow, was definitely diagnosed on March 19th when I went to the ER because of extreme fatigue.

I'm coping just fine; take my inhalent every morning, check my O2 saturation daily, and am not in the least depressed. Except so annoyed that I can't smoke ever again!! As to exercises, am not doing any although I suppose I should. But my pulmonologist didn't say anything about them;she did say to walk which is exercise of a sort, I assume.

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She didnt smoke to my knowledge!! Copd is also called the heaves.. Hers was mild and was usually only noticable after exercise. She had to move yard to one where she was in a massive barn set up with a clear air passage and was fed differently and bedded on rubber matting. She was almost fine in the winter and it got a bit worse in the summer when the pollens were about. She had a nebuliser and was fairly stable excuse the pun! I sold her as a companion when she was 15 and she was pts at about 19 when she stopped responding to the treatments.

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MIL doesn't really walk anywhere she goes to the market on Tuesday, by bus but it is a small town so the bus driver picks her up outside her house and drops her back there again, so she doesn't have far to walk.

The BLF woman said that I needed to make sure that she was getting around enough but since she has a pressure sore on her bum I don't think she is.

I am glad to hear that you are coping, I will get MIL sorted so that she can cope too. Thank you for your time. Re smoking MIL looks at it as saving money so she treats herself quite often to things she wouldn't normally have had which is a good thing.

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So glad to hear that your horse your horse managed a fairly long life, isn't it amazing what vets can do for animals now? I had no idea horses could be alllergic to pollon you live and learn everyday.