Hi everyone,
I wanted to get everyone’s opinion on this;
For background I am a 28 year old male, I smoked 5-10 cigarettes a day between 15-25 and quit just over 3 years ago.
I have been having issues which initially started as burning pain in the throat and trachea and have then moved down to the lungs causing inflammation. Initially it was very intermittent, but over a few months it has turned to constant trouble breathing and mucus in the throat every single day (not much of a productive cough though).
I have seen a pulmonologist, and have done an allergy panel and Spirometry test. No allergies but the Spirometry is borderline asthma or COPD. In our follow-up appointment he has said it is likely COPD from lung damage from smoking (based on the Spirometry results). I have my next appointment in a few months where we will retake Spirometry to see how it goes.
I am now on a BREO inhaler, which helped initially, but after taking a dose a few hours later than usual my lungs have gone downhill and trouble breathing is not going away. Recently I have brought a peak flow meter and it is also showing no improvement at a constant 450-500 (predicted is 630). Not sure if this is relevant, but I have also gone from 72kg to 65kg in 1-2 months (that’s 7kg lighter!).
My concern is that this is either being misdiagnosed, mistreated, or something is being seriously overlooked by my pulmonologist. And I fear the longer it is not treated properly, the worse things will become. It has taken some convincing just to get him to do a blood test for AATD (which is worrying!!) I’m waiting for the results.
Are there any other conditions that present like COPD/asthma? Would something like cancer in the trachea/lungs or sarciodosis have a similar presentation? At this point I am becoming more convinced it is early COPD, although I had no issues breathing or gradual onset before and 28 with a 5 pack year history seems very unlikely.
I also attached a copy of my Spirometry results for context. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!