YOU HAVE COPD/EMPHYSEMA (COPD - Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary [Lung] Disease).
Youve gone through kicking yourself repeatedly for having ever smoked. You wish you would have quit years ago. In fact, you wish youd never smoked at all, but you did. Theres no point looking back, because what could have happened did. Its official; you have been given the diagnosis. You have seen the TV commercials of what smoking can do to you, but let me tell you what having emphysema is really like. You dont just start walking up the stairs, get puffed halfway through, as depicted in one of Australias recent TV commercials, then get to the top of he stairs and find the picture of a completely disabled woman, hunched over in a wheelchair, the oxygen cannula stuck up her nose. Shes wearing the ridiculous and uncomfortable hospital gown, for its much easier to get on and off than it is to wear your favourite pyjamas, or any pyjamas for that matter. The gown is practical, for you can no longer wash yourself, and youre left completely dependant on nurses and paid carers, often strangers, for your every need. You need to be washed, fed, medicated, and be wheeled from your bed and back. Another TV commercial depicts a motorcyclist who tells you how tough it is; that having emphysema is hell. If you blink, you would miss the canister of oxygen he has in the side-car of his motorbike. Riding a motorcycle with emphysema? Not possible! If you want to get on that bike and ride with the wind, youd last 2 minutes, and thats just climbing up and into the seat. Wind in ones face will certainly take your breath away. You cant ride a motor cycle, or a push-bike. Its even difficult to drive a car when youre in the 3rd then 4th and final stage. Emphysema robs you of practically everything you used to enjoy. You cant go out because its too cold. You cant go out because its too hot. You cant go out because its windy. Sounds like Goldilocks all over again and its exactly what its like. Want to enjoy some time with your friends? Those who havent given up on you? And they will. They dont understand what it means to have emphysema. Talking makes you breathless and creates pain. Laughing is even worse. Not only will socialising with your friends leave you breathless, it shall leave you in pain; enormous pain. This pain lasts for days on end, usually longer. It is an isolating, depressing disease and it takes your life away bit by bit, year after year. You barely notice your limitations in the beginning, but, being the deteriorative disease it is, you will begin to notice, and once that starts, your symptoms shall become worse and worse with time. I am portraying some nasty facts about what its like to have emphysema, particularly as, had you never taken up smoking, it could have been avoided. There are, sadly, many people who have never smoked, who suffer from this illness. There are people who have been born with an alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency, resulting in COPD, and they must endure it no matter how healthy their lifestyle has been. There are others who have never smoked, but have had partners who did. Passive smoke will do it. Passing by a smoker in the street, the smell of smoke on a persons clothes; this induces coughing. Ive no doubt this has happened to you. I feel so very sad for those people born with that gene, or cystic fibrosis, another genetic factor which causes COPD. Many people can smoke and not get a lung disease. Most smokers, however, will get some form of lung disease. It may be bronchitis, asthma, lung cancer; there are many other forms of lung damage which will take your life away, slowly and insidiously. It is a painful, insufferable way to die. Smokers, you are the ones I am writing to and about, because you are the ones who can avoid getting sick.
S Perlman AKA Ziggy Baitz November 2012