COPD & Emphysema Support Group
COPD is a progressive disease characterized by airflow obstruction or limitation. Emphysema is characterized by loss of elasticity of the lung tissue, destruction of structures supporting the alveoli and of capillaries feeding the alveoli. Both have symptoms that include shortness of breath, among other respiratory troubles. If you are a COPD or Emphysema sufferer, join...
I have a question, not sure how to ask it.
My husband has COPD, and he doesn't want me to know how bad it is. He hides a lot from me. He hasn't been to a doctor in a couple of years. I know he has it, I know it's getting worse, but I don't know how bad it is.
On Saturday, he was laughing at something one of my little granddaughters said -- it wasn't a big belly laugh or anything -- just a normal laugh.
That laugh triggered a major coughing spell. He left the room while he finished coughing. When I asked if he was okay, he said, "Yes, I'm just trying to catch my breath."
Is that "normal"? Why does laughing trigger such an event? Is that any indication of how severe his illness has progressed?
I would appreciate any information you're willing to share. I read as much as I can about his illness, but I haven't seen anything that addresses this particular issue.
Thank you.
My husband has COPD, and he doesn't want me to know how bad it is. He hides a lot from me. He hasn't been to a doctor in a couple of years. I know he has it, I know it's getting worse, but I don't know how bad it is.
On Saturday, he was laughing at something one of my little granddaughters said -- it wasn't a big belly laugh or anything -- just a normal laugh.
That laugh triggered a major coughing spell. He left the room while he finished coughing. When I asked if he was okay, he said, "Yes, I'm just trying to catch my breath."
Is that "normal"? Why does laughing trigger such an event? Is that any indication of how severe his illness has progressed?
I would appreciate any information you're willing to share. I read as much as I can about his illness, but I haven't seen anything that addresses this particular issue.
Thank you.
i also go into coughing fits if i talk to much and a few different things that didn't happen before this disease (dx)
my "figuring" is;
when i talk, laugh etc i am having to inhale, hold, exhale so my lungs are being "worked" more.
the excercise to my lungs doing those things cause the "stuck, thick, crud" in my lungs to start loosening up & working up---but of course then i feel it "stuck" halfway so now i have to go thru the coughing/choking fit to get it the rest of the way up.
i also seem to go into a coughing fit as i get up & am walking around, when i lay down at night & a few different scenarios where it seems one tiny bit of crud decided to detach from its lil lung wall.
what frustrates me is that for the coughing/choking that i go thru, you would think the whole lung would get clear; but oh no, just one lil bit of crud comes up until the next coughing fit & then one lil bit of crud comes up.....
i don't do this 24/7, just a few times a day something will "set" me off. (thank goodness, no one would survive this kind of choking all day long)
BJ
he really should go see a pulmonary doc. especially if he gets short of breath.
Good that you want to learn about COPD - knowledge is power, as always, when the unexpected happens.
Hugs, Cindy
"swallowing spit" gross but true....and also a bit of whatever I'm
drinking seems to "go down the wrong throat" as I describe it.
And salt. It can be mean. I once salted a radish and I darned
near choked to death.
Birdcat
my sister and i used to laugh that we would die choking on our own spit---i hate it when that happens LOL
justshootme= i can understand your husbands side also; i got so sick of doctors & others lecturing me about smoking, that i think i smoked as long as i didn't just to rebel.
sad that is what is keeping him from seeing a dr. as at his age i'm sure he knows the risks of smoking & doesn't need a dr telling him again!
(no, i am not advocating smoking! i just remember feeling that way & wanting to shoot the next person that told me "the harms of smoking" like i was some idiot---in fact when i did quit i didn't tell anyone because i didn't need others "support & advice" on how i should quit; geez i am a stubborn ol rebel LOL)
you are ME....
I smoked 48 years and hated hearing all the b.s.
(mostly from folks that didn't know wherein they spoke)
Do they think I liked paying all that money and spitting out my
tonsils.....Oh I sure did. And so of course "I" showed them and
just kept on ruining my health !!!!!"
And I also told very very few when I actually DID quit and for
the same reasons as you.
Birdcat
bit offended....
but then I figure she is not talking behind my back and I do know
exactly what she thinks. :o)
Birdcat