| Emphysema
So I was diagnosed with emphysema and I stopped smoking twenty years ago. I thought it possible that I could get something after smoking for 30 years and I did. I have probably had emphysema before I ever quit smoking, according to everything I've read, and remembering how I have felt all those years. I knew I was never going to run a marathon, but I didn't know I had COPD. I had a physical every year for all those years yet none of my doctors ever diagnosed it. I have had several chest Xrays during this time but no one ever said anything was wrong with the Xrays. I think Xrays don't show it well. I wound up getting a CT scan by my VA Primary care doctor last year and he is the first one to say I have centrilobular emphysema. Even after the diagnosis was sent to my current civilian Primary care doctor, he never mentioned it or suggested I see a pulmonologist. I decided to go to one on my own and they said I definitely have COPD with a Fev1 of 46%, which isn't good. I wonder if I would be better off now if I had started getting some kind of treatment years ago. I know that smoking was my choice, but I kind of feel that I have been somewhat let down by the doctors I saw all those years. They all asked if I had ever smoked and for how long, and knew I had been a long term smoker, yet they never recommended any annual tests to screen for either cancer or COPD.
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