Emphysema Gives Me the "Creeps"
I'm a 64 year old woman who was diagnosed with stage 2 (now I'm stage 3) emphysema three years ago. I smoked for many years but quit in 1999. And though I was shocked to learn I had emphysema to the point where I didn't quite believe it in the beginning, I realize now that it had been creeping up on me the last eight years. Around 2011, I noticed that couldn't wear turtle necks or anything that was a little tight around my neck. It surprised me because it had never bothered me before. I even thought that maybe I had a thyroid problem and had the Dr. test me for it. My thyroid was fine. I believe now that my body was telling me something back then. It was telling me I wasn't getting the oxygen I use to get and I shouldn't make it anymore difficult to do so.
Then in 2013, I came down with the flu. As I laid in bed having the hardest time trying to breathe, I wondered if I could die from it. And I thought naw because I never died from asthma. (I should interject here that I've had asthma on and off since I was a teenager). I recovered but noticed that I couldn't climb these stairs at this parking garage that my husband and I would park at when we went to the movies. I use to take them with no problem. I thought it was probably just age and since I only go to the movies twice a year I was ok with it being my "just getting older".
Things became interesting, though, in 2014. I started a new job and there were stairs that I had to take to and from the break room. Going downstairs I was fine but coming up..when I'd get to top of the stairs it felt like my heart was coming through my chest and I couldn't catch my breath. It was a horrible feeling. A feeling that made me realize this just wasn't old age or asthma. This was something else entirely. In fact, I thought it was my heart. My father at the age of 51 had triple by-passes so I knew that heart disease was in the family (BTW, he's still alive at 92!). So, I just didn't take the steps up anymore. I did that for about a year. I didn't want to go to the Dr. and be diagnosed with heart disease. To make a long story short, I ,finally, did go to the Dr. and told him what I thought. They did chest X-rays and tested my heart. All the heart tests came back ok. The chest X-rays, however, showed moderate emphysema. Emphysema?? No one in my family ever had that. Oh well, that's how emphysema creeped up on me. I still catch myself sometimes wondering if I really do have it or if it's just a bad case of asthma. Other times, oh I know I have it. It's not hiding in the shadows anymore.
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