The Importance of COPD Awareness

Hi I'm Donna,
It's very important to me because people don't understand that this disease is real, it will never go away, it will never go away.
Plus people need to learn to respect myself and others with this disease.
For example I'm living in an apt. Building where I have my heat off and my apt runs anywhere from 69 to 73 degrees even with my fans on high and my 2 windows open - all I got to open. Landlord said it's cause the heat is rising from Tennants in apt below.
Even though the high heat is affecting me and is making it hard to breathe he won't do nothing to help me. He knows I have COPD And thinks it's not real and it'll just go away. People like him need to be taught all about COPD And things such as indoor temps do affect their tennant who has COPD.
thank you.

COPD awareness is important because it affects every aspect of your life. Breathing is life and too many people can take it for granted.

What others should know about COPD? Hmm.
It's not just about breathing but about losing your breath. Once simple things are now a daunting task. Something as simple as cleaning or making a bed can make you winded. Your entire life is affected, from sleeping to eating. Steroids can help you breath easier but it takes so much more in return. It can cause weight gain which makes life harder and it's downhill from there. Doing breathing treatments, for me, means 3 times a day without fail because if I do too much or go without for too long then it gets harder and harder to breathe.
"Our lungs give us life and keeps it going but if they fail then we begin to lose what life we've had." -me

Hi PlainDave, and thanks for joining in the conversation here. We appreciate you sharing your own personal point-of-view as it relates to vaping.

We do actually have some published material (right here on our COPD.net website), that focuses on this issue. For your convenience, here are links to two of them.

First, this one, on e-cigarettes: https://copd.net/clinical/what-are-e-cigarettes/,

And next, this one on vaping: https://copd.net/living/vaping/.

I do hope you find them to be helpful to read.

All the best,
Leon (site moderator COPD.net)

I had my first COPD exacerbation last Dec, 2019, and I'm convinced that I got it from vaping. I did smoke earlier in life, but not for my entire life - only about 10 years. I'd like to see a well-crafted message sent to all vapers in the world, but I know that's not reality. So, if you think vaping is a healthy alternative to smoking, think again. It coats your lungs just like smoking. Our lungs are "made" to breathe clean air only. Thanks. 😀