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>>>ARI JAFFE: My name is Ari Jaffe. I'm a physician
specializing in lung disease and I work at the University of
Illinois at Chicago and at the Jesse Brown VA. Well I see a
lot of COPD being a pulmonologist and specifically
working at the VA hospital. I don't know if people realize
it's the 4th leading cause of death in the United States and
the rates are climbing faster than the first 3 leading
causes. In fact more women today die of COPD than men.
So we need to be aware of this disorder not just in
our veterans who smoke who are men but also in
the women and in the general population.
>>>MS: Well I was diagnosed last October
right after running Chicago last year with COPD.
>>>FS: My father he had emphezema so he died 15
years ago and he was just 49 when he died.
He spent the last 15 years of his life with that illness.
>>>FS: I have an Aunt that has COPD and I see how she's
suffering and I think it's really important to know.
Well I know from personal experience of seeing
her that she has difficulty breathing, she has difficulty
walking very far because she runs out of breath
and it's absolutely debilitating for a woman in her 70s.
>>>FS: I saw the COPD sign, my Dad died of COPD back in 1981.
I can remember my Dad he was a heavy smoker and
he would hang over the fence just trying to
get air, trying to breathe, take in air.
>>>FS: My husband has COPD and we've been dealing with
it for about 10 years. You know what? I think it was
gradual but we really didn't notice it because I would notice
him being short of breath during certain things but it wasn't
where it affected him that much. Then all of a sudden he got up
one day, it was just like, you know he said there was
like a rock on his chest and he just couldn't breathe.
>>>ARI JAFFE: Well the test is really easy it's called
spirometry it takes less than 5 minutes, all it takes is
breathing into a tube as hard as you can, it's painless, it's
quick. Many people don't realize how painless and quick it is.
>>>MS: She just had me take a real deep breath and had me
blow it all the way out even till there's nothing left
and then get off of the machine right away.
The whole thing took maybe a minute and a half.
>>>FS: You just have to take a really, really deep breath
and then hold your nose, she told me was a good trick.
And then breath out for 6 seconds and she has
a little computer and does all the math for her.
>>>ARI JAFFE: Patients sometimes are a little nervous
about finding out if they do have a disability or if they
do have signs or symptoms that may be suggestive
of COPD. But if they're smokers, they may have
cough or other signs and symptoms, shortness of breath.
They should get tested, it's easy, it doesn't hurt.
>>>MS: I developed respiratory disease. I got pneumonia.
Then I went through a series of tests over the last year,
it's helpful to understand what, what it is,
you know how, like I said how to try to minimize
the things that you know affect you.
>>>FS: When somebody in your family has COPD it's not
only affecting that person, it affects everybody in
the family. It affects the grandkids, the kids, I mean
you know he can't pickup the grandkids like he wants
to, he can't go out and play with him like he wants to.
The doctor and myself and my husband actually
you know how a bunch of visits to get him setup on the
program which is very important because my husband
wouldn't be able to function now if we didn't
watch his disease and take care of his disease.
>>>MS: Work with your doctor on a treatment
plan to try to make sure you get on the right
medication and, and live as healthy as you can.
>>>ARI JAFFE: Well I see patients with COPD everyday
and too often I see them too late. I'd much rather see
them much earlier where we can try and do interventions
that may help them quit smoking and maybe make
their life and certainly improve the quality of life
with some of the opportunities we have
for treatment both with lifestyle and with medication.
>>>FS: When you're not breathing correctly
your whole life, it seems different.
>>>FS: Well I learned that you know, you may think
that you're okay, and you really need to stop and
find out how things are with you as far as your
lungs, so I learned something today that I
didn't know so now I can follow up with that.