Every breath you take: Chronic lung disease prevalent on North Olympic Peninsula
Mary Margolis, left, shares a laugh with fellow COPD patient Sandra Howard, who received a lung transplant last year. -- Photo by Marcie Miller/Peninsula Daily News
What to look for , when to get help
MANY PEOPLE OCCASIONALLY have trouble catching their breath, but when every breath is a struggle, it's time to get help.
Dr. Mark Fischer, internist who sees many COPD patients at the Klahhane Clinic in Port Angeles, said it's important for anyone experiencing unusual breathing problems that last more than a few days to contact a doctor.
While there can be many causes of shortness of breath, an X-ray and simple breathing test can help pinpoint the problem, he said.
Spirometry, in which the patient's lung capacity is measured by breathing into a tube, is a very good screen for early COPD, Fischer said.
Once a diagnosis of COPD is made, Fischer said doctor and patient should work together to create a management plan, including a rehearsal plan of possible "what if" scenarios.
These include imagining incidents or factors that may worsen breathing problems, and ways to manage them both with medication and holistically.
"There is quite a lot that can be done that is not too invasive or high-tech, in the holistic realm," Fischer said.
Fischer also encouraged patients and their loved ones to become involved in their management plan.
COPD is very prevalent on the North Olympic Peninsula, Fischer said, due in part to the greater population of people older than 65 years.
"It's among the top five chronic diseases on the Peninsula, by virtue of demographics and because we are on the coattails of several generations of heavy smokers," he said.
Fischer wanted to stress the importance of influenza vaccinations for everyone, not just those in high risk categories such as COPD patients.
"We don't want to be responsible for conveying the flu virus to someone else," he said. "We get vaccinated not just for ourselves, but for the safety of others."
Peninsula Daily News
THE NATIONAL HEART, Lung and Blood Institute lists the following risk factors and symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Risks:
• Smoking: COPD occurs most often in people age 40 and over with a history of smoking, although as many as one out of six people with COPD have never smoked. Smoking is the most common cause of COPD and accounts for as many as 90 percent of COPD-related deaths.
• Environmental exposure: COPD can also occur in people who have had long-term exposure to things that can irritate the lungs, such as certain chemicals, dust, or fumes in the workplace.
Heavy or long-term exposure to secondhand smoke or other air pollutants may also contribute to COPD.
•Genetic factors: In some people, COPD is caused by a genetic condition known as alpha-1 antitrypsin, or AAT, deficiency.
While very few people know they have AAT deficiency, it is estimated that close to 100,000 Americans have it. People with AAT deficiency can get COPD even if they have never smoked or had long-term exposure to harmful pollutants.
Symptoms:
• Constant coughing, sometimes called "smoker's cough"
• Shortness of breath while doing activities you used to be able to do
• Excess sputum production
• Feeling like you can't breathe
• Not being able to take a deep breath
• Wheezing
For more information on COPD visit www.nhlbi.nih.gov.
MANY PEOPLE OCCASIONALLY have trouble catching their breath, but when every breath is a struggle, it's time to get help.
Dr. Mark Fischer, internist who sees many COPD patients at the Klahhane Clinic in Port Angeles, said it's important for anyone experiencing unusual breathing problems that last more than a few days to contact a doctor.
While there can be many causes of shortness of breath, an X-ray and simple breathing test can help pinpoint the problem, he said.
Spirometry, in which the patient's lung capacity is measured by breathing into a tube, is a very good screen for early COPD, Fischer said.
Once a diagnosis of COPD is made, Fischer said doctor and patient should work together to create a management plan, including a rehearsal plan of possible "what if" scenarios.
These include imagining incidents or factors that may worsen breathing problems, and ways to manage them both with medication and holistically.
"There is quite a lot that can be done that is not too invasive or high-tech, in the holistic realm," Fischer said.
Fischer also encouraged patients and their loved ones to become involved in their management plan.
COPD is very prevalent on the North Olympic Peninsula, Fischer said, due in part to the greater population of people older than 65 years.
"It's among the top five chronic diseases on the Peninsula, by virtue of demographics and because we are on the coattails of several generations of heavy smokers," he said.
Fischer wanted to stress the importance of influenza vaccinations for everyone, not just those in high risk categories such as COPD patients.
"We don't want to be responsible for conveying the flu virus to someone else," he said. "We get vaccinated not just for ourselves, but for the safety of others."
Peninsula Daily News
THE NATIONAL HEART, Lung and Blood Institute lists the following risk factors and symptoms of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Risks:
• Smoking: COPD occurs most often in people age 40 and over with a history of smoking, although as many as one out of six people with COPD have never smoked. Smoking is the most common cause of COPD and accounts for as many as 90 percent of COPD-related deaths.
• Environmental exposure: COPD can also occur in people who have had long-term exposure to things that can irritate the lungs, such as certain chemicals, dust, or fumes in the workplace.
Heavy or long-term exposure to secondhand smoke or other air pollutants may also contribute to COPD.
•Genetic factors: In some people, COPD is caused by a genetic condition known as alpha-1 antitrypsin, or AAT, deficiency.
While very few people know they have AAT deficiency, it is estimated that close to 100,000 Americans have it. People with AAT deficiency can get COPD even if they have never smoked or had long-term exposure to harmful pollutants.
Symptoms:
• Constant coughing, sometimes called "smoker's cough"
• Shortness of breath while doing activities you used to be able to do
• Excess sputum production
• Feeling like you can't breathe
• Not being able to take a deep breath
• Wheezing
For more information on COPD visit www.nhlbi.nih.gov.
By Marcie Miller
Peninsula Daily News
Print This |
Email This
Recent Headlines
State parks panel today to consider transferring Fort Worden to Port Townsend control -- 2/8/12 -06:07 PM
Waterfront walkway in Port Angeles slated to be built this summer -- 2/8/12 -06:02 PM
Port Angeles council pair fails to persuade colleagues to rethink lawsuit fight against FEMA -- 2/8/12 -06:02 PM
Same-sex marriage bill goes to governor; likely law next week -- 2/8/12 -05:57 PM
Olympic National Park chief to retire next month; interim designated -- 2/8/12 -06:17 PM
By Marcie Miller
Peninsula Daily News
Patients with COPD -- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease -- often live a life tethered to oxygen tanks, planning every move to preserve their precious small lung capacity.
Every breath is a labor, "like breathing through a straw with a hole in it," as one sufferer, Sandra Howard, put it.
Yet for Howard, 67, of Port Angeles, a diagnosis of COPD came as a breath of fresh air.
She went from being misdiagnosed with asthma to having a lung transplant, and a new lease on life.
She wants others to know more than she did about COPD so they can get relief sooner.
She is part of a support group for COPD sufferers on the North Olympic Peninsula, which meets monthly in Sequim.
Members span the North Olympic Peninsula, from Forks to Port Ludlow.
No relief
Howard had been diagnosed as suffering from asthma in her 50s, but the treatment did nothing to relieve her shortness of breath and other symptoms.
"The medication was not working," she said.
Her doctor finally told her to see a pulmonologist, a doctor who specializes in respiratory diseases.
He told her she didn't have asthma, but severe emphysema.
"I was happy when I learned I didn't have asthma," she said.
With a diagnosis there was hope for proper treatment.
Emphysema is one of a number of chronic lung diseases which affect more than 12 million people in the United States, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, a division of the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
The majority of people with COPD, like Howard, are or were smokers.
Howard had never heard of the disease when she was in her 30s, "suave, looking sexy, smoking -- [and] waking up every morning coughing my insides out to get my pipes open," she said.
COPD is an umbrella term, covering a wide range of diseases which affect the lungs' ability to process oxygen efficiently.
Emphysema and chronic bronchitis are the top two diseases, but other sufferers may have a genetic deficiency of the alpha-1 antitrypsin (AAT) protein, which leads to organ damage, or bronchietasis, a repetitive lung infection which damages tissue, or other uncommon conditions, according to the NHLBI Web site.
Asthma is not normally categorized as a "chronic" pulmonary disease, since most forms can be cured. The other diseases can not.
Rare lung disease
Mary Margolis, 43, of Port Angeles, was 33 when she was diagnosed with the rare pulmonary disease, obliterative bronchiolitis.
"It means I have really small airways," she said. "They don't know where it's from; it's idiopathic."
Margolis smoked "off and on" for 15 years, but said she hasn't smoked in 10 years.
For Margolis, having COPD means allocating her energy and planning her day carefully.
She was a Clallam County probation officer until 2001, when the disease made work too difficult.
People who suffer from COPD don't get better; they just learn to live with it in order to improve their quality and longevity of life. In extreme cases they may receive lung transplants.
Transplant
"You can delay the deterioration, but you can't stop it all together," Howard said.
After her diagnosis she enrolled in a pulmonary rehabilitation program and learned everything she could about COPD.
"One of the main things I learned was that I needed to be in charge of my disease," she said. "My medical caregivers needed to be more like 'consultants.'"
Still, her condition continued to deteriorate, and in October 2007 she was put on the national lung transplant waiting list, under the care of Dr. Mark Fischer in Port Angeles.
On May 4, 2008, she got the call to pack her bags and head to University Medical Center in Seattle.
The mother of a 19-year-old man in Alaska had agreed to donate his organs, after taking him off life support following a car accident.
"I still get teary eyed when I think of her courage and what a huge difference that gift made in my life. It's a second chance," Howard said.
After the mother agreed to release the identity of the donor, Howard learned he had the same birthday as her husband.
'I call her Rosario'
Howard received her new lung on Cinco de Mayo -- the fifth of May.
"I call her Rosario," she said, patting her chest over her "new" lung.
"I try to live my life in such a way to honor him," she said of the young man she never met.
She makes chocolate chip cookies on his birthday, just as his mother used to.
While Margolis celebrates her friend's successful transplant, she is hoping to not go down that path.
"I've been stable for a number of years," she said. "I hope it doesn't progress to the point of needing a transplant."
While statistics show someone dies of COPD every four minutes in the United States, Margolis emphasized that a diagnosis of COPD is not a "death sentence," and that there are things patients can do to improve their quality of life.
"Exercise is huge," she said.
She said she mainly walks for exercise, while Howard said she has a treadmill "that I don't just use as a clothes rack."
Both women stressed that anyone with breathing problems should ask their doctor to be tested for COPD, so they can begin treating and managing the disease, and get on with their life.
COPD meeting
The COPD support group meets the fourth Saturday of every month at the Mariner Cafe in Sequim. The group is informal, and may or may not have a guest speaker.
The next meeting is set for 11:30 a.m. Nov. 28 at the Mariner Cafe, 707 E. Washington St.
For more information contact Mary Margolis by phone at 360-452-1473 or by e-mail at tigger@tfon.com.
_________
Features Editor Marcie Miller can be reached at 360-417-3550 or marcie.miller@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: October 25. 2009 10:35PM
Peninsuladailynews.com comments are subject to the Peninsuladailynews.com User Policy.