My Beginning of COPD – Maybe?

   Since being diagnosed with late Stage III COPD I have spent much time trying to figure out how I started down this road.

Granted many of my job choices did not help – like packaging in a fiberglass insulation factory or working 20+ years in food service breathing in fryer/grill fumes and the chemicals it took to clean them.

But just where did it begin – was it my asthma or was it my ‘Esophagel Atresia’?

‘Esophagel Atresia’ is a birth defect that affects the esophagus and the ability to swallow whole and/or liquid foods.

Normally ‘esophagel atresia’ is found when the esophagus ends in a blind-end pouch instead of connecting to the stomach or sometimes the esophagus curves back and connects with the trachea – both situations causing any and all foods to end up elsewhere than the stomach.

When the esophagus is connected with the trachea then any/all foods being feed into an infant will come back up into the mouth and/or nasal passages and eventually some may get into the lungs.

This is a birth defect that happens in one of every 2,500 births.

That to me is where my COPD started its journey as I was born with my esophagus connected to my trachea and while nowadays this birth defect can be detected by ultrasound after about 26 weeks, back in my day (and we are talking nearly 60 years past) it was only discovered when I had trouble taking any feedings without choking, sneezing, coughing or throwing up.

I was blessed to have one of most informed doctors of the day available regarding this birth defect and he was able to determine what it was and got me into surgery to fix the defect.

The reason I make my own personal conclusion as to this being where my COPD journey originated was because if I did get any type of liquid and/or whole food particles into my little lungs (and I was little and born several weeks early) then no matter what they may have done or tried to clear them, I am sure they did not get it all.  And from that point on my parents say I was constantly fighting asthma and chronic bronchitis.

And that my friends is today’s writing of my ‘COPD Travels’.

Remember – without breathing a person is without life itself.

As always – if you or anyone you know have any symptoms involving lung and breathing functionality, and they linger over and over while disrupting a lifestyle – then please ask questions and get checked out.

With that I bid to all – smiles, prayers, blessings and steady breathing – Mr. William.

(Copyright@2014, CrossDove Writer)

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(Information gathered from personal experience, personal reading materials as well as health informational websites)