My Own Doctor Struggles
When I was 30 years old I was involved in an explosion at my place of employment. I was burnt over 83% of my body with second and third degree burns and spent 105 days in intensive care with hundreds of skin grafts.
After I healed somewhat I started coughing a lot so my doctor sent me to a pulmonologist. She said I had chronic bronchitis and gave me several inhalers to use. Those inhalers did not seem to work for me but the doctor said to keep using them, after a year I just quit going there.
For ten years I just kept coughing so my doctor sent me to another pulmonologist, this one said I had asthma and prescribed some pills and different inhalers so I tried them for another year or so before I quit going back there.
In 2012 I was really having a hard time breathing and could hardly walk any distance at all so my doctor said they would contact a different pulmonologist - and by this time I was getting leery of pulmonologists but I went anyway. This new doctor was what I needed! After many tests the doctor told me I had COPD and he took away all breathing meds and started me on new inhalers and in months I started to see improvement.
On my second visit, my pulmonologist said that according to my PFT I only had 42% lung capacity. That day I went home and started preparing for the death that I assumed was coming soon, then I started doing some research and saw that people with COPD could live a long life if they worked at it.
I have since started walking at first a little ways and each week going farther, I am now walking up to 6.5 miles every day, and I have not missed one day of walking in 4 months. My latest report from the doctor is my lung capacity is now at 64%. So if you are not getting the results you want do not be afraid to ask for another doctor, because there are some good ones out there!
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