Thorey
10-09-20, 21:11
Hi. This is my first thread though I've been registered for longer. I was hoping for some way to get things off my mind...
So at 23, I started smoking, and then quit early this year because I felt sooo out of breath all the time. However, 8 months later, I still feel short of breath, all the time. Like I can't take a walk and talk without panting a bit, and I feel myself having a constantly hard time taking deep breaths, like my lungs just can't fit enough air.
I was really scared when I got a spirometry done - my FVC/FEV1 was 78% of expected, and my FEV1 was 75% of expected - but no reversibility with asthma medicine, so they actually ruled out asthma. The results rather seemed to suggest light emphysema. I thought emphysema (COPD) was practically impossible for someone my age, but then the nurse mentioned I may want to test for Alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency, which is basically a 1/1500 genetic disease where you can get emphysema at a young age... so, of course I am now completely convinved I have COPD and that I'm going to live a worthless life and die at 50 (at most). I don't know how to cope, as my dyspnea already makes my daily studies and work hard. I feel, ironically enough, like I might as well just end it all now, before having to deal with slowly suffocating to death.
As you can tell, my angst is intense. Anyone had similar experiences, with scary spirometry results? Or just struggling with constant dyspnea?
So at 23, I started smoking, and then quit early this year because I felt sooo out of breath all the time. However, 8 months later, I still feel short of breath, all the time. Like I can't take a walk and talk without panting a bit, and I feel myself having a constantly hard time taking deep breaths, like my lungs just can't fit enough air.
I was really scared when I got a spirometry done - my FVC/FEV1 was 78% of expected, and my FEV1 was 75% of expected - but no reversibility with asthma medicine, so they actually ruled out asthma. The results rather seemed to suggest light emphysema. I thought emphysema (COPD) was practically impossible for someone my age, but then the nurse mentioned I may want to test for Alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency, which is basically a 1/1500 genetic disease where you can get emphysema at a young age... so, of course I am now completely convinved I have COPD and that I'm going to live a worthless life and die at 50 (at most). I don't know how to cope, as my dyspnea already makes my daily studies and work hard. I feel, ironically enough, like I might as well just end it all now, before having to deal with slowly suffocating to death.
As you can tell, my angst is intense. Anyone had similar experiences, with scary spirometry results? Or just struggling with constant dyspnea?