I just now joined even though I have had my diagnosis for at least two years. I quit a ten-year off-and-on smoking habit about 25 years ago. I spent the seven years it took to get through college working in a resort hotel breathing in the fumes of bathroom cleaners and working as a cocktail waitress and bartender. It seems that upscale smoke and chemicals are no better than the ones in the cheap seats, lol. I have painted house after house with only the basics of ventilation because, of course, I was bulletproof. So my lungs are now damaged.

I am perplexed by my medical personnel and am setting up an appointment to have this all explained clearly. How do I get the answers to my questions? My pulmonologist said that my CT scan shows moderate emphysematic tissue and no one can explain what that means in actuality. Does it mean that half of my lung capacity is gone? Maybe only 25%? He emphasized that I do not have emphysema and that the damage is not from the smoking years. A month ago I went to my PCM Doc for something else, he pointed out a diagnosis of emphysema.
The pulmonologist prescribed a daily inhaler and a rescue inhaler after seeing my CT scan. Last year the PCM said I don't need the daily. I asked about what I should be doing to maintain/improve my health. The Lung Doc looked at me as though I had asked him if alchemy was real and the PCM just shrugged. I asked about progression and life expectancy and there are no answers. I do understand that this is a rather vague disease, but is this really all everyone else is getting? What should I be asking?