Living with Emphysema

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“Living to die, Dying to live”
by: Rodney O. on Mon, Sep 21 2009

At the beginning of my path of being a chronically ill man, I had a this cannot happen to me attitude.I was 100% in denial.It took me over a year from my first x-ray to even go back to the doctors again.When I did go back,the Dr. told me he wanted to do a bunch of computer type tests on me and they did everything from take my blood to make me blow in this hose and keep on blowing keep on blowing keep on blowing till I was white in the face.I kept going back for about 6 months doing tons of testing.Well,he came up to me with a serious look on his face and told me that I had a rather severe case of Emphysema

As a matter of fact he told me that my FEV1 was less than 30% and he put me on oxygen at 2 1/2 liters per minute and if I am up and about to turn it to 3-3 1/2 LPM.Well,that was 9 years ago and my FEV1 is at 15% and my oxygen Saturation is around 65% and sometimes it is 80%.I am not sure about how long I have left,but there is and has been one question that nobody seems to be able to answer.If you are living to die,or you are dying to live,What happens to one at the moment of your death?Is it extremely painful?Do you pass away in a calming sleep?Or do you go down kicking and fighting in gasping for air?Does anyone out there have this info???

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Thu, Mar 11 2010
HI Jnita, Not much going on here a little sun finally. How are you feeling? The last couple days I felt kinda slow, just little short activities took ...Read
Wed, Mar 10 2010
Hi Freddy: Glad to hear from you, thought maybe something had happened to you. My sister is doing better, but had to start treatments earlier than ha...Read
Fri, Mar 05 2010
Jnita, Sorry not to have answered your letter. I tried to log on and it would let me since your mail came. Just got on tonight. Your right about the s...Read
Thu, Feb 04 2010
Hi Freddy: How's it going? Too Much Snow!!!!! It seems like as soon as the driveway clears just a little, it snows again. Gosh, I'm tired of it. P...Read
Sat, Jan 09 2010
Jnita, Happy to hear from you again. Glad to hear your doing well. Christmas came and went so fast it was unreal this year. Had to work both days so t...Read

September 2009

“Living to die, Dying to live” - by Rodney O. - (Mon, Sep 21 2009)
At the beginning of my path of being a chronically ill man, I had a this cannot happen to me attitude.I was 100% in denial.It took me over a year from my first x-ray to even go back to the doctors again. [more..]

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