disturbed

[chattime770]

I posted a ? a couple of weeks ago about my mothers lungs. I made a mistake she has 65% of her lungs that are Not working.
So only having 35% left how much longer can she go on?

[National Jewish]

Emphysema is a chronic lung disease linked with cigarette smoking.  It is a disease that worsens over time.  There is relatively irreversible obstruction of airflow and actual destruction of the airsacs in the lung.  Normally the airsacs of the lung look like a bunch of grapes.  Emphysema causes destruction of the walls in between the airsacs.  Over time these individual airsacs become one large airsac called a bullae.  When this happens there is less surface area for oxygen to get from the lungs into the blood and for carbon dioxide to get from the blood into the lungs to be exhaled.  When a person’s lungs reach the point where they cannot provide the body with enough oxygen, then supplemental oxygen is needed.  This helps to lighten the workload on the heart, so that it doesn’t become enlarged.

Your mother can lead a good quality of life for many years, with 35% of her lung working.  However, it is difficult to say how much longer because this varies greatly from person to person.  What can be said is that as long as she continues to smoke, more of her lung will be affected by emphysema.  In time this will cause less and less of her lung to work.  This may decrease her quality of life and her life expectancy.  The most important thing that your mother can do to help herself is to quit smoking.  It is not possible to say that this will stop the emphysema from affecting more of her lung, but it will slow down the rate of progression.  To help your mother to quit smoking, you may want to look at our Just Quit Online program at http://www.nationaljewish.org.  Also check with her doctor for other quit smoking resources in her area.

A common complaint with emphysema is shortness of breath.  Pulmonary rehabilitation is a program to bring back your mother’s quality of life and help lessen shortness of breath.  This is a program of aerobic exercise done on a regular basis.  Some programs will also include education about emphysema and nutrition.  Please read our Pulmonary Rehabilitation MedFact at http://www.nationaljewish.org/medfacts/pulmonary.html for more information.  Share this information with your mother’s doctor to see if this would be helpful for her and where in her area there are programs.

[starion]

So much depends on many factors, including your mom's other conditions, overall health & conditioning, exposure to lung irritants and smoking, use of any precribed oxygen, infections, and other factors.  This issue is best discussed with your mom's doctors.  In addition, it may be helpful to inquire about whether pulmonary rehabilitation may be helpful to your mom.

Folks CAN & DO live full and active lives with even less than 35% of predicted lung function, but it IS more challenging.  You can get additional free general info by calling your local chapter of the American Lung Association and requesting it.  You can also read excellent material at www.NationalJewish.org, particularly their MedFacts and Understanding series.  Best of luck.

Aloha,
Starion