Sabrina -
Yep, a good chance that the pneumonia lowered his lung capacity a touch. Clearing the throat is often caused by thick mucus. Mucinex will often help. Weight loss is always a question, some lose and others gain. COPD is a personalized disease, everyone is a mite different...

Regards,
Dennis

Hi again,
Your dad's weight loss could be a combination of all you said. Once he gets back to his "normal" and starts eating, if he keeps losing that is when you should get concerned. COPD is different in all of us and one thing you want to do is keep your weight up. Make sure he has a good pulmonary specialist and a good diet of lots of veg's and fruits, fish, ect, healthy stuff. Let him eat a little several times a day. The doctor should know if he has no appitite, or keeps losing to fast. He just needs the time to bounce back from the surgery and the pneumonia. Good luck to you both, and I hope he bounces back soon
BJ
ps, I hope he is not smoking and that no one is smoking around him..!!!

No, he quit smoking 4 years ago.
He's actually not too worried about this at all. I am the one who is more worried than he is - I've been reading online and scaring myself!
Your comments and experiences are great to hear!

Sabrina, I agree totally withn Denny on the pneumonia lowering the lung capacity, as for the weight lose I would think that the combination of the 3 recent stressor's in his life had a major role. Hopefully he can find a way to keep it off, because I suspect in time it will be back. Regards, Bill

You have to be very careful with online sites. Some are really good and some are dubious at best!!!
The best one's are medical like webmd.com, or mayo clinic.com, and there are several copd sites,lung.org, copd.org, But don.t let it scare you, as DennyGene always says, Knowledge is power, and the more you, and your dad, learn about this disease, the more you can handle it and what ever it brings in the future.
I can understand you being worried, especially if you just do not know or understand what is going on. Have your dad sign the paper giving you the right to ask his doctor questions,
and everyone in this group, altho we are not Doctors, live with this disease everyday, and will be glad to share anything we know or can find out with you.

So don.t let it scare you, it is a scary disease, and it is a disease that has no cure. But there are many ways to slow down the progression, to stay strong and to not let this thing rule your life.

Have a good evening, and please don.t hesitate to ask anything here.

BJ

Thank you again for your wonderful welcome!

Hi, Sabrina! You didn't say what weight BMI he had before he lost weight. Is he underweight now? Also, look for if he continues to lose weight. Eating healthy food grazing all day long is a good strategy for stabilizing weight. Your father can also supplement his nutrition with a protein shake and exercise especially weight lifting can add weight but it's really up to your dad to manage his health - if he doesn't want to, there's not much you can do! As counter-intuitive as it sounds, stay away from heavy carbs and sugars, especially sodas! They really don't help! WELCOME to the Group!

I lost a bunch of weight due to an infection but Boost protein drink product helped me rebuild. I had half bottle in the morn & half in the pm... between meals. Mine tasted like chocolate milk with a tad of vitamin taste...not bad. Protein is the building block for repair. I think the fact that it was easy,... made me use it faithfully for a month.

Love your concern & keep an eye on him. We sometimes don't notice our own changes...our families do.