So this morning I had a phone consultation with the best doctor at our GP surgery. He told me that as I’m asymptomatic with my emphysema that currently there’s no need for putting me through a barrage of tests. I walk several miles every day with my dogs and I swim at least three times a week - approximately fifty lengths of the pool.
I’ve felt SO guilty about having been a smoker - even though I stopped thirty five years ago - but he said to me, you can’t turn back the clock and if you look at it another way, people who did lots of intense sport thirty five years ago have often got buggered knees or hips. It’s life.
I told him how frightened I was by the diagnosis and he said he doesn’t treat a set of results, he treats me as a person. He reassured me that he’s there if I need him and if I get another chest infection- which is what triggered the chest x ray - I must contact him straight away and get at least two weeks of antibiotics.
He said I am not defined by the emphysema and I mst keep doing everything I love.
This simple conversation with a truly kind doctor has lifted my spirits so much.