Hi All,
As an intro, I’m a 51 yo male & I’ve been on this road now since 2004, a familiar story of bad asthma as a child, binge drinking & smoking until 34 yo, inhalers and a medical history to be proud of!
I do have chronic bronchitis with an light asthma component but my air flows were good putting me at Stage 0 or now termed Pre COPD. Luckily for me I knocked the cigs on the head at 32 but have struggled with daily symptoms of a constant cough, bad breathing (aware of it, deep breaths an issue) and feeling off. I took Symbicort for many years but got a lot of chest infections and didn’t notice that much improvement so have gone it alone for for 6 years, I mostly feel the same but crucially have not have had a chest infection now for 3 years.
I have a question for some of the more knowledgeable of you good people. Back in ‘04 I had the the book thrown at me, CT, Body Ples, methacholine test etc. At the time I had the following results; (I had the usual panel of varying poor results on the 25-75 & other flows which the jury is out on so I won’t post those, there was noting significant on DLCO, RV etc)
FEV1 of 4.66L (108%) and FVC 5.39L (103%) FEV1/FVC 86
Post
FEV1 4.78 FVC 6.29 76% (massive increase in FVC but small increase in FEV1)
Anyway to the nub of my current malady, I’ve just done a few office PFT’s and am shocked my the decline in my numbers (In 2015 the exact same instrument put my FEV1 @ 4.7)
FEV1 4.0 (93% of predicted) 5.78 FEV / FVC 69 (minuscule change post Albuterol)
So I’m seeing a over a half L decline in my FEV1 in less than 5 years despite not smoking, office work and keeping healthy. I might add I'm not feeling any different than I did in '04.
Doe this merit an expensive trip to the Pulmo?
Thanks in advance.
Con.