I was diagnosed with COPD recently after an emergency trip, via 911, to the hospital in respiratory failure. I have subsequently had PFT, and am on O2 24/7. All more or less in the blink of an eye. I went from retiree merrily travelling through Europe with daughter and Granddaughter to home on O2 24/7.
A bit of a shock even though I had smoked for years I had quit 5 years ago and had no symptoms except some SOB which was attributed to problems managing severe hypertension by my health care providers.
To further complicate things, I am a nurse BUT before you wonder about my question you should know that after some initial years as a new grad working in an ICU/CCU my specialty was psychiatry so most of my knowledge medical is sorely outdated or just plain lacking.
So to finally get to it, what are the important questions to ask my pulmonologist? All the values reported in the PFT boggle my mind so keep it simple if possible. Thanks for patience reading this big long epistle.