FLASH
Ref: Early detection public COPD Spirometry, World
Spirometry Day and World COPD Day
I called our health district yesterday and spoke with Cris
Craig, Kitsap County Health District Public Information
Officer. She couldn’t answer my question about the health
department offering free spirometry to the public. She did
say in a cheerful voice she would call in about three weeks with a
response. THAT is good news and she didn’t ask what COPD was
– even better.. A hopeful sign and may mean that Spirometry
will be offered and made available to the public. I believe
in miracles.
Professor William MacNee and the Royal Infirmary of
Edinburgh Scotland, UK website has superb graphics –
the best explanation of COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary
Disease) I’ve seen in one place. His ‘The Latest Trends in
COPD Research’ graphically shows why early detection Spirometry is
important.
For many of us COPD is an ongoing magnet for other disease,
including some really difficult stuff. COPD and lung disease
can be the beginning of a long list of personal medical challenges
expanding the patient’s medical disease library. Whatever
needs to happen to avoid COPD in your life get tested for early
detection and do whatever is needed to get it done.
My son, Al and I were visiting family in Northern Norway
in1997. I didn’t know then my 40 year smoking habit was
almost over. And so was I. I was beginning to
feel sick. The day after this picture was taken, I had to see
a Norwegian doctor. She examined me and prescribed
medications for Pleurisy and Chronic Bronchitis. The
medication worked, the pain receded and we were back on
schedule. Within a couple weeks after this picture was
taken and five days after returning home, I was in the
hospital.
Life as I’d known it was over.
COPD is a friendly disease. For me, once Emphysema (COPD)
got settled in my lungs and got comfortable, she began to invite
her Other Stuff Disease buddies for a sleep over. Trouble is,
they stayed over and didn’t go home. They joined COPD trying
to play Havoc with my health and life.
Following COPD was an open lung biopsy and Sarcoidosis – Sleep
Apnea – RLS – Psoriasis – Venous Stasis Dermatitis –
Cellulitis – High Blood Pressure – Lymphedema – and
bone-on-bone Arthritis, left hip followed – to name a
few.
Early detection Spirometry can stop COPD early
– before it’s too late. Ask your doctor.
This is where it gets tricky. Health care is a huge
problem. COPD generally takes twenty years developing
before a person mentions symptoms to the doctor and by then about
fifty percent of the lungs are destroyed….leading the patient to a
long slow smother and the taxpayer choking form the cost.
Offering free Spirometry testing for early COPD detection gives
the individual warning. If the problem is not genetic,
it can be turned around. Telling isn’t enough – SHOW people what
COPD can do to them and their families. Let them meet willing
patients who can show and tell… a real reality show.
Exercise works and muscle utilizes oxygen better than
flab. We can breathe better and move easier. Exercise
and understanding COPD gives us a quality of life back – to be the
best we can be. The recumbent trike takes us places we
couldn’t easily go without one – fun stuff, building muscle
at the same time. We must keep moving … ask your doctor.
I did not qualify for lung reduction surgery or I would have
opted to get it ..not enough good lung and I heard rave reviews
from patients who had had one. One COPDer told me the lung
reduction surgery restored his life back to ‘normal’ and lasted
about five years before time and COPD danced ahead. Ask your
doctor about it.
Pursed lip breathing training is a must for COPDers – it keeps
us out of the panic mode and out of the hospital. It has for
me…and I tested it with my oximeter.Talk to your doctor about
pulmonary rehab. It is never too late to get better through
our own efforts…what does your doctor say?
Photo taken by the photographer who traveled with the
Trek. This photo shows me on my recumbent trike flying the
COPD/EFFORTS safety flag and pedaling over Deception Pass
with the American Lung Association of Washington’s three day bike
ride – the Trek Tri Island.
It was the first time I had been away overnight from my house in
seven years – since Harrison Hospital in 1997. A slow trike
rider, it is thanks to the wonderful volunteers who hop scotched me
and my trike ahead of the other 200 plus bike riders time after
time that enabled me to pedal 50 miles of the 137 mile trip. I felt
free again.
Key motivators were the Shortness of Breath Study at the
University of Washington Medical Center that I was lucky enough to
qualify for and my online support group, EFFORTS. Proof to me
that educating COPD patients work.
Stroke patient, Mary Griffith and her butterfly and gold star
fingernails caught my eye the other day – more about Mary and
husband, Doug later)
Kitsap County Health District … Will you be the first county
health district in the nation to see the fiscal benefit of early
detection Spirometry to protect citizens of ALL ethnic
background.
The Kitsap County taxpayer and COPD future could rest in your
hands.
Thank you Professor William MacNee for a great COPD
informational website and allowing me to use it
here.
http://www.efanet.org/activities/documents/WMcNeeLatestTrendsinCOPDResearch.
pdf
More later… Sharon O’Hara
Part 4 of 4
