well my friend, I found out when I was the ripe old age of 39. That's right, and no Alpha-1 deficiency, just good old smoking disease. Like an idiot I continued to smoke until just this past December. Feeling like a fool, but ready to fight. I am not going down without a fight. Couldn't tell ya what my FEV1 is, but I will be finding out in a few weeks where I'm at now, nearly 3 years later.

how old are you now Rosie

First, you really should have a conversation with your pulmonologist about your prognosis because there are so many factors that impact the course of COPD. If he/she is not willing to have this discussion with you, you have the wrong doctor.

This link is a decent general discussion you might want to read:

http://copd.about.com/od/copdbasics/a/copdlifeexpectancy.htm

You might also want to Google "BODE index COPD".

Hugs,
TJ

hey Caitsmom that BODE thing has cheered me up, according to that I should have a fairly normal life, that is also what my lung nurse said, If I can get my fev up by 4 -5 points then I would have scored 0 on that test thing which is the best score .........well I just hope it's true

I never had a normal life before. Does this mean I will now?
I am 59this year, was diagnosed five weeks ago with a FEV of 43. I quit smoking . Heart is good, spirits are fine - lungs suck. You need to work with your own numbers. Statistics mean little. Why uncertain? I'm going to live until I die, just like everyone else. Think quality, my friend - along with longevity. If I lock myself in the house with a pile of meds and exercise equipment, I might live a long period. But I'm not big on life sucking for long periods. I'll do what's good for me and the quality of my life, but I ain't going out with a whimper or whine...
Hugs,
Dennis

Hi Pete. I am 43 years old and was diagnosed with emphysema just before christmas. I too am a lifelong asthmatic. My Fev at that time was 59. I quit smoking on 25th January this year and had another lung function test 2 weeks after. I saw my pulmonologist last week and got my results and my Fev had gone up to 66. Also, the breathing tests they do before the appointment were a lot better too.

as always you folks give THE best advice and generally make me feel better , Dennygene, you are so right , and I think today is the day when I'm beginning to feel o.k again in my head, your advice is good, and really all we can do is live for now ;
KKLEA, so your fev shot up , I believe that over 65 is out of the danger zone, and I am hoping that mine does similar when I go back in August , it sounds like we gave up smoking around the same time. I believe that asthmatic lungs swell up more than normal, when smoking. I certainly feel much better now ....
so , my mantra is from now on ...to stop worrying and live life back in the fast lane ...it's spring here after a long and hard winter and as the blossoms bloom so do my lungs (did you hear that lungs...your getting better) ... yes , today I am going to start a new painting and sod the numbers
thanks everyone ...my online doctors

Pete, Your FEV1 is only a measurement for the amount of obstruction you have. People can have next to no obstruction but severe Emphysema and/or severe obstruction and very little lung damage. That's why, like Cait said, they use other ways to measure all aspects of the disease.

oh jeez , just as I was beginning to think I was out of the woods

Pete,
Suggest you have a bit of weed (for artistic purposes you know) and start a new painting!

Let the Queen worry about the other stuff! *loti

who's in the woods?? Marge, you in the woods?? Am I gonna need a lawyer today??

hi Jstorch, FEV stands for forced exhalation volume, there is usually a number at the end of it , like FEV1 and this means one second,.. so that means ..the amount of air you can blow out in one second ...and off that they measure it against against the predicted volume of someone of the same age, so if mine is 60 , then that's like 60% of someone my age , they use it to measure the severity of COPD too . like under 50 fev is usually when folks get short of breath

Man, they freed me from the joint with less questions than this..

lets see...I was diagnosed xmas of "08", however, the doc said had I have gotten the chest x'rays 15 years ago he would have dianosed me with Empy back then also.

Stabbed in the lower left lung, lost that sac, upper left lung works dandy, cept it's a little sick now too

I have been attempting quitting smoking for over 35 years, never for less than a month each time, never for over 3 months each time, except for now, just over 11 months quit. yay me

I can't remember the rest of the questions

Jona , .....just take some more of the red ones , I take the red ones in the morning and the black n white ones in the afternoon and at night I take the ol blue ones ... they answer all of my questions ...oh yeah