How do you convince yourself you have a future with COPD?

I am finding my emphysema increasingly difficult to live with. Setting aside my inglorious physical decline, until recently I'd managed the disease reasonably well on a steady diet of denial, stoicism, and the sort of black humor that comes from binge literature on the utterly stultifying subject of ‘acceptance'. After four years it is still blatantly obvious that I am slowly, sometimes quickly, suffocating to death: and smoking cessation, regular exercise, bronchodilators, vitamin supplements, dairy free diet and fizzing spring water have made scant difference to this fact. Anyone any novel suggestions on how best to proceed from here?