Friend of mine just diagnosed with COPD

Prayers. I’m sorry for your friend. May God bless him and his family.

I got diagnosed at 18, as a non smoking college swimmer. It came during my recovery from a spontaneous pneumothorax. He should get a better evaluation than just an ER visit.

In before Vaxxed

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Tell him he needs to be checked for Alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency.

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Not really that common, but it's less invasive than riding a stationary bike with the mask on... which leads to multiple blood draws anyway, to see when you go lactic.

10%-15% die within 10 years of diagnosis and it's the 4th leading cause of death worldwide. I'd say it's not good.

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Smoking sucks.

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The first two words of the OP are literally "lifelong nonsmoker".

My friend, who is a lifelong smoker, was diagnosed with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease….and may die within the next decade????


No frickin way….


You gotta be shitting us all…

Maybe get in a time machine and tell him to heed the surgeon generals warning from 1964.

I know someone who is 61, been diagnosed since around 50, tall, thin, very healthy, barely drinks, never smoked in his life, and barely eats an ounce of fat. No symptoms of it at all.

There are a lot of diagnoses I’d hate more than COPD nowadays.

True. COPD has innocent victims and those that deserve it. My dad grew up in a chain-smoking household and didn’t deserve it. Never smoked and detested it completely due to his childhood.

This is like a thread that reads, “pray for my friend that is a prostitute. They were minding their own business, working hard, and found out they might have AIDS”. FAFO.

For anyone interested in understanding the medical side a bit more, FWIW:

* A lot of people seem to think COPD and emphysema are the same thing, because emphysema is the most common form of COPD, but they're not. Other types of COPD include chronic bronchitis and some rarer stuff.

* Smoking is certainly the most common cause of COPD, but it's not the only cause.

* COPD is not like cancer, or even the flu. There are degrees of it. Some are pretty mild and easily livable with. Others are considerably worse. IMO the bigger issue is whether it's getting worse, and if so, why / can anything be done to stop the progression. I'm sure the pulmonologist will get get a full baseline set of function tests (spirometry, lung volumes, gas exchange) and then periodic retests to track it over time.

* Drugs like bronchodilators can certainly help.

Hopefully your friend can get into a good treatment regiment and achieve great results.