Hi again, BenDavis, and thanks for sharing your history and current medical circumstances with the community. While we cannot provide medical advice or diagnostics over the internet (for your own safety), your concern certainly warrants a reply.
As you may be aware, COPD is a progressive disease. As such, there are ways to slow down it's progress. We do have some published material on this very aspect of COPD.
As well, quitting smoking is one of the best accomplishments you can achieve with this condition. This article focuses on how quitting smoking may benefit those with COPD: https://copd.net/living/rewards-quitting-smoking-nutshell
I do hope you find both articles to be helpful. You may also want to discuss this further with your physician.
What do you think?
All the best,
Leon (site moderator COPD.net)