“Difficulty lifting anything from the ground
level—such as a slightly heavy box.”
“It would be interesting to see the list. I’ll bet
we all have a lot of different answers, just like we are all so
different. Such a ‘unique’ malady Alpha. I recall
a low progressive cough. . . almost all of the time . . . especially
at work. Almost under my breath kinda cough. I wasn’t even
aware I was doing it until my boss making a comment about it.
And then a fellow waitress saying, as long as she’d known
me I’d had a cough. My boss also noticed that maybe I was
a tad short of breath, and that asthmatics could have a cough
. . . so she thought I had asthma. That is how I got dignosed,
she sent me to her asthma specialist. Funny, I hardly ever cough
now. I imagine it is the medication (inhalers). And I’m
sure not smoking anymore MIGHT have a little something to do with
it. Still have the SOB thing, but not noticable unless I am really
busy and pushing myself.”
“Riding my bike when I was 27 and ‘SOB’ with
no real reason. No history of asthma at the time, but chronic
respiratory illness as a child.”
“I guess my first symptoms of Alpha was
about 30 years ago. I couldn’t swim across a swimming pool.
I said that does it I’ve got to quit smolking. And I Did
and havn’t smolked since. I was again reminded about 15
years ago when I was walking up a hillside with a friend who was
about 25 years older than me and he ran off and left me in his
dust. I said I’ve got to get in better shape. (Sadly I never
have.) About 10 years ago I developed a chough. I was working
overseas at the time. They didn’t have any medical facilities
at that location. It was 9 weeks before I returned to the GOOD
old USA. I had choughed every day almost all day long for the
entire 9 weeksand lost 30 pounds. When I did return, I went to
Dartmouth Hospital in New Hampshire. After a kzillion tests they
determined it was Alpha. I’ve been on prolastin for 10 years
and have maintained my stats pretty well. I am still active. My
wife and I just returned from square dancing. I can play 18 holes
of gold if I use a cart. I am on O2 at nights because my O2 levels
were very low on the all night monitor. You all stay well now
hear.”
“Very hard to walk, coughed a lot, stomach hurt, felt bad
in general.”
“I am 72 now and my first symptom was out of breath while
pheasant hunting, my pals were running after walking and I could
not. I was out of breath they smoked like heck and I have never
smoked a cigarette. Company nurse sent me to Doc he said you need
specialist, and here I am. Mother died from this I am sure they
said emphysema but we know better now, she also never smoked.
Dad sure did though.”
“I am a lurker on the Alpha line. I have been an Alpha since
1992. For 10 years I had complained about being SOB to 3 different
doctors. However as I look back my first indications of Alpha
was in the colds which I got. I had about 3–4 colds a year
and coughing was the worst problem. I would keep my cough for
at least 5–6 weeks after my cold was gone. This was some
20–30 years ago in the 1970s.”
“The first time I can remember having enough of a problem
to know that I had a problem, was walking into work form the parking
area on cold mornings. On cold mornings I would be out of breath,
huffing and puffing. It seemed to affect me more when it was cold.
Also I like Laguna Patti remember that even in my early 20s I
had a very difficult time with running long distances. Although
I was in good condition I could not run a Mile.”
“The first time I knew that it was not just overexerting
was when I could no longer breathe while dancing the polka. I
used to love the ‘each chorus faster than the last’
dances. When I could no longer breathe while beating the feet
through the first verse, I knew I had emphysema.”
“It was in high school that I noticed that
in the drum and bugle corps, I was the 16-year old huffing and
puffing and feeling like I was going to die!! Also, every year
(sometimes twice a year) I had a bout of bronchitis as far back
as I can remember and when Ihad my X-ray done to get in college
they thought I had tb because of the scarring.”
“I took a company physical and a PFT. You remember the little
2"x2" card back in the late 70s? I took the card to
my Doctor and he blew it off, saying it was just another new fangled
test didn’t mean nothing. LOL He kept me healthy until another
pulmonary doctor diagnosed me with Alpha-1, in Jan. ’93
I started to work in the oil field in Oct. ‘78 and found
I would get really out of breathe loading sucker rods. The rest
of the job wasn’t a problem, just bending over and swinging
those blasted 25' rods from the ground to a low trailer. Ah, the
good old days, ya right!”
“Mine was SOB when bending over to tie my shoe and little
bitty wheezes when propped up in bed reading. I was 36. . . .
I forgot one more that was actually the first. . . . I would answer
the phone, after just walking from another room (not running,
just sauntering over), and the person on the other end would ask
if I’d just run in from outside or something since I was
‘out of breath.’ Didn’t realize I was breathing
like that but you know how phones amplify sound. ha!”
“I first noticed there was something really wrong when climbing
a mountain in the French Alps. I couldn’t climb more then
2 meters at a height of 2000 meters. This was twenty years ago.
Alpha-1 was diagnosed 12 years later. First I thought I just should
quit smoking wich I of course couldn’t then. When dxd I
did fortunately. And stayed smoke free.”
“We had cross-country running. I went to
an all boys school and it was considered character building to
run around muddy, hilly countryside in the middle of winter. To
say I feared this would be gross understatement; it ‘terrified’
me. If I couldn’t get out of it, and boy did I get out of
it when I could, then I would be miles at the back, walking with
the cigarette smokers and the fat kid (times were hard in the
fifties so there wasn’t any obesity at all). The reasons
for my terror were manifold. Firstly, I couldn’t breathe
properly, no matter how hard I tried, secondly the PE teacher
was a fascist who would run up behind us (as he lapped us) and
wack our backsides with a running spike. Thirdly I would be late
for the next class and, like xxxxx, get detention. This engendered
in me a hatred of sport and, to my regret now, I turned my back
on physical exercise and settled for a life of hedonism. Still
I don’t regret a single thing and, as we’re found
of saying here: ‘If I had all the money I spent on women
and beer, I’d spend it on women and beer.’”
