Introducing Myself Again - Posted by Mary C

[Blossom/Jackie W.]

Introducing myself again..:-)
« Thread Started on Sept 27, 2010, 9:06am »

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Hi everyone,

Learning the functions of this board is a daily adventure for me and while trying to make some modifications to it, I managed to delete my own post... Thank heavens it didn't happen to one of yours..<g>

So, I will make my introduction again and it will definitely be different from my first one.....sorry about that.

So, I'm Mary.....and I was a caregiver to my hubby for several years before I lost him in '07. He was diagnosed with COPD in 2001 and we discovered then that he'd been misdiagnosed for a lot of years.....thus being treated improperly. Several other events led to some severe exacerbations and finally a hospitalization. After insisting, for over a year, on seeing a doctor he had seen before, we finally got a referral. That was in Jan. '07 and at that appointment, we were told if he didn't have a lung transplant, he wouldn't make it a year. He was put into in-hospital rehab and spent most of the summer of '07 there, trying to put some weight on him and building up muscle to withstand the transplant. This helped some but other health issues that were discovered prevented it from helping much. I could go into great detail here on all the problems we encountered but I've found it's better to try and let this all go, as it only keeps me dwelling on the past. But, the bottom line was he continued to go downhill after leaving rehab and I lost him the end of Nov.

I was a daily caregiver for a while and encountered almost every emotion and comment that could be made. What really struck me was that there weren't any support groups for caregivers of COPD patients. It seemed there was a group for everything else under the sun, including hangnails, but nothing for our group. I spoke up to doctors, the hospital, the lung association and anyone who would listen....but to no avail. That's why I had the passion to start this group, so we could have a place to vent, share, listen and learn. Who better to be with than others going through similar things? So that's why we're here.

I hope everyone will take the opportunity to share and participate here. This has been a goal for me for a while and I finally feel ready to tackle it head on. But, I can't do it alone.....so please join in and take part in things.

Hugs,

Mary