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Persistent Childhood Asthma Linked to Early COPD
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Hi, I'm 49 and I was diagnosed with Asthma aged 12, this was based of presentation of wheeze and breathlessness as well as my paternal uncle having brittle Asthma. when I was aged 29 I was diagnosed with COPD. It wasn't until I reached the age of 39 that it was discovered that my initial diagnosis of Asthma aged 12 was infact wrong. I actually had an undiagnosed condition called Scheuermanns Disease of my spine. As a young toddler aged 18 months I was admitted to Great Ormond Street childrens Hospital with failure to thrive, malabsorption. I also had very short stature and even at the age of 3, I was still in clothing aged 18mths. It was always stated that I would be 18mths behind in growth for my actual age. Looking back at photos of myself I can now see how tiny I was.
My Rheumatolgy Consultant stated that if my wheeze and breathlessness had been further investigated when I was aged 12 the diagnosis of Scheuermanns would have been noted and I would of been placed in a spinal brace or plastercast following the insertion of Harrington rods fixed to either side of my spine to help straighten my back. The condition of Scheuermanns disease caused my spine to curve and this caused my diagphram to become squashed, which caused the wheeze and breathlessness. Now looking at photographs of my paternal uncle and from childhood memory my uncle had quite a significant hump on his back, this was always perceived to have been from him spending a lot of time hunched over due to coughing. Unfortunately back then the medical equipment which we have today wasn't even in operation back then.
My parents were both smokers and my paternal grandfather also smoked a pipe, we used to spend every Saturday with him and my nan and I remember him always puffing on his pipe. My maternal grandfather also smoked cigarettes so I was exposed to the second hand smoke from a very young age. The effects of second hand smoke was not noted back then. I started smoking in my teenage years as like many thought it was cool, now I know different. I am now a non smoker and I'm in my 3rd year, I had tried many times before but fell off the wagon.
In 2012 aged 45 I was diagnosed with Avascular Necrosis of my jaw joints and required surgery to replace both my jaw joints with Titanium implants. The Titanium jaw joints were a cost of $16,000 a side and were made by a company called TMJ Concepts in Verona California USA, I had to travel 180 miles from my home in the UK to Birmingham UK for the surgery. It was this that gave me the push to attempt to give up smoking, as I felt if they were prepared to invest such a huge amount of money I owed it to them to do my best in quitting smoking. Which I managed, and in March 2015 I underwent the 6 hour surgery to replace my jaw joints with Titanium implants. A specialised Anaesthetis in respiratory compromised persons looked after me during the surgery. I knew there were huge risks with this length of time under anaesthetic and ensured all my affairs were in order.
Im now 15 months on from the surgery, all went well and my progress is good. I do battle quite a number of complex health problems and I do find each day a struggle.
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Gilda
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Gilda
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Last activity on 03/02/2023 at 15:26
Joined in 2015
710 comments posted | 20 in the COPD Forum
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