I'm so discouraged, frustrated and guess just mad that my breathing has seemed to get worse the longer I'm not smoking! I had such a COPD 'flair-up' on January 4th - I haven't had a cigarette since. Put on oxygen January 5th, which with the help of prednisone and oxygen, the flair-up finally settled down. However, now after 32 days, seems like breathing is harder and I'm having to use oxygen more and more....... question - do you ever regain lung function after quitting smoking?