Thank you very much indeed for your kindness and insight. I'm not normally so pessimistic and irrespective of my feelings, I do stick doggedly to a daily routine (more like regime) of exercise and healthy living, setting out each morning at 5.30am for a wobbly walk with my batty Spaniel.
I recognize that I’m ill-disposed to being ill, which serves only to puts me further into harm’s way. I know too that I don’t do patient in any sense of the word, at all well, which in view of the diagnosis is… unhelpful, to put it politely. My emphysema of course, is unimpressed by any of this and simply pleased to be the nonchalant, intractable and unremittingly humorless elephant in my rooms. I need to get a grip – and sharpish. My wife of 35 years has been endlessly supportive. We have faced and overcome egregious intrusions into our lives before. Ironically I seem to be more physically active than I have in years and usefully, I no longer smoke. However I have very little time for doctors in general and especially the deeply depressing caravan of therapeutic quackery they seem to trundle behind them. Therefore I would very much appreciate your views on some of the fundamental questions I have and that I cannot find satisfactory answers to, or even a consensus of opinion. For instance …. Do you believe the rate of emphysema may be reduced to a normal level of progression, with the application of a good diet and daily exercise? Is it possible to develop a manner of living that prevents emphysema from progressing any further? My FEV1 (50%) continues to head south at an alarming rate of knots. I know both questions seem to ask the same thing, but in my funny head they don’t. Oh dear, perhaps this illustrates how far out to sea I am, not quite drowning but certainly not waving either. Thank you so much again for your time and consideration.