“For me it was increased shortness of breath.
This was in my mid-thirties and we it attributed to having pneumonia
almost yearly for the past 15 or so years. The next thing was
a chronic (mucus producing ) cough.”
“For me it was a doctor warning me that I had a flattened
diaphragm, and that I would start having symptoms of emphysema
unless I quit smoking. Actually, his diagnosis means that emphysema
had already started. I was in my late 30s I think.”
“I’ll share the event that forced me to the docor’s
and a discovery of emphysema = Alpha-1. It was October, 1996,
my daughter and I were rushing to the theater in Boston for a
movie and we had to run up a couple of flights of stairs. It totally
gutted me!!!!!! I never got my ‘breath back’ until
much later that night . . . can’t remember a thing about
the movie, just the panic of ‘I CAN’T BREATHE!!!’
In fact, we discussed taking me to the hospital, but I drug my
heels ’cause I was so far from home.”
“Was told I had emphysema until during a bad bad winter,
and several trips to the hospital in a taxi because I couldn’t
breath in the extreme cold weather when I was getting ready to
go out into the cold and scrape off the car and realized I COULD
NOT BREATH. The doctor finally sent me for a blood test and chest
X-ray. I cannot stand the COLD and I have a“wheelchair”
sign for the winter months because it is VERY hard to breath and
walk any distance.”
“I have been reading everyone’s ‘First
Alpha Symptom’ and find it odd that after experiencing ‘Shortness
of breath,’ ‘Difficulty climbing stairs,” and
so forth, that you would think that you have A1AD. I had all the
same symptons too but I came to the conclusion that I’m
getting emphysema so I felt a life style change was in order.
After seeing a pulmonary doctor and having a blood test done is
how I found out.”
“I firmly believe my first alpha symptom was projectile
vomiting as an infant. Several alphas have said they had the same
as infants. My second was spending each Christmas on the couch
with bronchitis, year after year.”
“This triggered another memory for me. I remember now in
high school having problems running long distances. I could do
the short haul, but not the long one. I would break out in a rash
on my legs from the stress of trying to finish, and the PE teacher
said it was probably circulatroy problems. I do have poor circulation.
That is why exercise is so important. I also remember being excused
when it came to doing the long laps around the track. Have never
liked running, nor been able to to it well.”
“I’ve always been a sport swimmer. I enjoy swimming
through rapids and building endurance by swimming up-river in
a swift flowing current. Beginning in about 1960, when I contracted
bronchiectasis from having pneumonia, I noticed that I would get
winded and that my endurance was diminishing. However, I continued
swimming but was bothered by more frequent pneumonia and increasing
dependence on antibiotics and inhalers. In September of 1998 I
switched pulmonologists because I couldn’t get rid of an
infection. He immediately diagnosed me as an Alpha-1 MZ and he
had never before had an Alpha patient. Through it all, from 1960
to the present, my FEV1 has ranged from 95% to 104%. So, my pft’s
were not a good indicator of my COPD.”
“I believe my first Alpha symptoms were
in the beginning wheezing very badly. Being told I had slight
Asthma, I never really thought much about it, so I kept on smoking.
Dumb!!! But a few years later I noticed not being able to climb
the hill of the parking lot at work without wheezing terribly
and becoming totally breathless. It got to where I would stay
over until most people were gone and then I would slowly walk
up the hill, still totally breathless. About this same time I
was in Aerobics/Jazzercise and was having lots of difficulty with
jumping jacks, raising my knees (like high marching) and just
becoming completely winded. I thought I was just ‘out of
shape.’ I had quit smoking about this time to become healthy.
. . . LOL!!! Also, now that this question has come up, it made
me take a really good look at everything. I never thought I was
in denial, but I was. When I was around 35 (around 1975) and getting
a divorce, I remember my Doctor then (he was leaving his practice
and going to California) was listening to my lungs and informed
me he thought he was hearing the start of Emphysema. I, of course,
was outraged, not believing I was old enough (you know, Emphysema
is an old people disease) so I completely dismissed it, that he
had made a mistake. After I quit smoking in 1984 I had a PFT done
and a different Doctor then told me I had very bad lungs, similar
to a coal miner. He gave me some Theophylline and told me there
was nothing he could do.”
“I don’t think that there was one moment for me but
a gradual experience of almost yearly bad chest colds and doctors
looking at my X-rays and asking the ‘Smoking’ question
with little apparent belief in my ‘no’ answer . .
. this went on from age 38–58 (when I was finally diagnosed).”
“Think it was swinging the bat at my daughters
softball practice. That was about 20 years ago . . . long before
I had even heard of Alpha-1. Walking uphill and not being able
to catch my breath. I remember exactly where I was and who I was
with. . . . Growing up I had bronchitis every time I caught a
cold. At 27 I had my gallbladder removed. When I was 30 I got
mononucleosis and could not recover. My doctor was very concerned
that my liver was enlarged and stayed enlarged for so long, about
a year as I recall. I had 3 kids, husband and business at the
time so I really did not dwell on it. In fact I drove the doctor
crazy by not acknowledging it. When I was about 35 I dove off
a boat to swim to shore and I really thought I was going to drown.
I was a very strong swimmer but I had to stop every few strokes
and float on my back. I solved that by never getting in water
over my head again. I should have made the connection that something
was seriously wrong. I was embarrassed so I just pretended I was
enjoying the water ballet I did all the way to shore and never
mentioned that to anyone. Somewhere in here I quit smoking and
that did not help. I think I was about36 or 37. When I was approaching
forty (or at least I could see it from where I stood)and I thought
‘Boy what they say about 40 is true!’ Little did I
know. The first time I really knew something was wrong I was walking
up a hill with my daughter after a cheerleading competition. I
could not catch my breath and it took me a long time to recover.
After that I turned 40, got pneumonia, couldn’t recover
and went to a pulmonologist who diagnosed me when I walked through
the door.”
