What is life like for someone with severe emphysema?
Dr. Hogarth: There were surveys done of people with COPD and emphysema. Roughly 90% of them say that on any given day, they have trouble breathing, so pretty much all of them. Life with COPD actually has to cut back on what you do, because you’re afraid that if you walk too far away from your home, how are you going to get back. Patients tell me that when we start to treat their COPD, whether it’s with medications or something like this, the mundane activities they can do again, stuff that you and I take for granted; going to the grocery store, walking up and down the aisles, carrying the laundry, playing with your children or your grandchildren, dancing with your spouse, pick something, that’s why this is so important to me. The doctors are always looking for ways to make people live longer, and that’s clearly important, but living better is I think actually more important because COPD robs you of your life even while you’re still alive, and being able to give someone their life back
