I have healthy anxiety over my mom, possible COPD

[Worrygirl32]

Hey everyone,
So for a few years now my mom has had recurrent sinus infections as well as respiratory infections. She also has really bad allergies. I may also add that she cleans a lot with bleach. Because she kept having so many respiratory issues I encouraged her to talk to her doctor to see if there was a possible culprit to all if this. He sent her off to do a pulmonary function test. She is 50 years old and never smoked. Just long term exposure to cleaning products (which I don't know if the exposure was often enough to be significant), allergies, and chronic sinusitis, with mild intermittent asthma with no complications. She had the PFT today and she said it made her really anxious and she said it was hard to do. They also did it with a albuterol. There person who was conducting the test told her the pulmonologist would look over the results and send them to her primary care and she would hear back in about a week. I have been extremely worried that she may have COPD. I have spent 3 hours this evening googling the difference between COPD and asthma to see if I can find a differential to basically diagnose my mom. I know I'm jumping the gun here and I know COPD is manageable. But it's obviously progressive and it's giving me a lot a lot of anxiety. Can anyone please over some words of peace?

[MyNameIsTerry]

My mum is 78, she's has asthma for decades, is on various meds for blood pressure as well as other conditions, she walks with a stick due to injuries over the years that have never fully given her back her strength.

She spent 12 months last year having tests on her heart and then lungs to determine she has COPD. She went on a new med for that and has seen an improvement in her symptoms.

My message to you is that having COPD is often considered scary because that's what we hear in the media yet the reality is it's not always the case.

You won't be able to diagnose your mum, the doctors can't diagnose without tests to back it up themselves. I have had asthma since childhood and recently they have decided my asthma has gone, for now. This was based on having no wheezing. COPD is diagnosed with more tests than that for asthma, my mum had these in hospital via a machine you breathe into for a period of time unlike the basic spirometry testing for asthma used in surgeries.