Welcome Les

[Blossom/Jackie W.]

Welcome Les!!!

Please feel free to jump in anywhere anytime on any topic. You'll find the water warm. Some folks check in daily at the Fence- it's open all the time... (come pop in and have a coffee with us), or

If there's a general interest item or

COPD related issue you want to comment on, share or ask questions, by all means ask away.

Or start a thread on a topic of interest or concern to you.
Whatever YOU are comfortable with. Don't worry about posting in the wrong area or anything; that's why we have great Co Admins who can move things or copy etc

There's a fair bit of information here and folks are pretty friendly and quite diversified when it comes to COPD; if they don't know something they'll point you in the right direction at the very least.I guarantee you'll be made to feel at home right away!

If you've not yet joined our parent organization/ COPD Canada Patient Network, www.copdcanada.ca/sign_up.htm Please consider it. It's open to e'one internationally and it's Free. Membership has it's benefits!

There's a lot we can learn and share together ... I hope in time you'll think of us here as a 2nd family.

So; make yourself at home and get comfy!

My name's Jackie, aka Blossom. I look forward to getting to know you!

[susanny]

Welcome, Les. Hope you find some good help here, and some new friends. It's my on-line 'soft spot to fall'.

Sue

[sandy07]

Welcome Les......great bunch here. You'll learn a lot and perhaps you'll share a lot as well?

[justbill]

Welcome to the neighborhood Les. Let us know how you're doin'.

[mary57]

Welcome Les, looking forward to reading you. You've found a great caring sharing group.

[John]

Les

[les]

Hey, everyone!
Thank you all for your warm welcomes.
I was reading this site all day yesterday and most of today and I can't tell you how comforting it has been. It's full of helpful information and I am encouraged by the positive attitude you all strive for or maintain.
I found this site after flunking a pre-op exam last Saturday. My EKG wasn't normal ( at least my doctor suspected it wasn't normal, but she had no base-line test to compare it to, so I guess it's possible that it might be my normal). After seeing that, my doctor put a pulse oximeter on my finger and my resting O2 was 92. Then we started to rapidly walk up and down this long corridor. When she stopped it read 87. At the time I didn't have a clue what that meant, thinking 0-100 it didn't seem too bad to me, but since reading on this site I have learned a great deal about COPD.
So the surgery was postponed and she scheduled an appt. with a pulmonologist and a cardiologist. I haven't seen the cardiologist but I saw the pulmonologist Tuesday. They did the 6 min. walking test. It took 3L (am I writing that right) to keep my O2 above 90. The doctor ordered oxygen and told me I am to be on it when I'm moving around. She also gave me a pulse oximeter to wear while I slept that somehow records data that they can access later. My husband returned it to the office yesterday morning and I called this afternoon to see if they had reviewed the results but they hadn't.
I have had bronchitis frequently throughout my life and pneumonia twice, but I had taken some precautions the past 15 years and in this period only had bronchitis maybe three times. I did smoke for almost 40 years and didn't give up cigarettes until 8 years ago. In all this time I had never used an inhaler. You can imagine the shock of being told you need oxygen.
I wish now I had researched COPD sooner. I've had 3 PFT's as an adult (all at my request). The last was in 2007 and showed that I had COPD and some emphesema. I had stopped smoking at that point and didn't realize there was anything else I could do to help the disease.
I'm so glad I have found this site now. Not only has it explained a lot of what is happening to me, it has shown me there are things I can do.
All of you have really helped me so much these past few difficult days and I'm so glad to know you are here. Thank you.
Bill, that's an adorable picture and John, I just love the glitz. Maybe I can learn to do that. And thank you also to Jackie, Sue, and Sandy.

Les

[les]

P.S. I forgot to thank Mary. Thanks, Mary.

Les

[helen]

Les

on this forum from me as well.

COPD is an illness with a thousand faces is said in the Netherlands.

How nice you knew the words of My Lord what a morning in Dutch, while I only know them in English, thanks to Harry Belafonte

See you again at the backfence, I guess

[les]

That is very funny, Helen, that you knew the song in English and I knew the song in Dutch. I also had a record of Harry Belafonte's songs when I was in high school. Even forty years ago, it was a small world.

Les