COPD Chronology

It runs together.

It really started before we moved to Mt. Holly on the last day of December, 1995. Taking the 1 1/2 mile walk from our house to the Dairy Queen I made a joke of placing my hand on Brenda's back and pushing her up the long hill on Graham. But she seemed to need the help. I think Yancie went with us sometimes, and maybe Frank, and maybe Randy too after he and Yancie got together. I carried a bo staff to ward off villains. We drank coffee at the Dairy Queen with friends and listened to Buster make BOOM! noises when he showed up. We hardly ever walked back; somebody gave us a ride. Those were pretty good times.

Emphysema was mentioned for the first time in Oct of 98 when, after a nasty bout of bronchitis, I managed to get Brenda to the emergency room at Gaston Memorial. The young doctor said matter-of-factly, "You've got touch of emphysema."

Six months later in April 99 another (or a continuation of the same) bout of bronchitis put her in Carolinas Medical for almost a week. This time the diagnosis was full-blown emphysema. But she continued to commute 38 miles back to Shelby where she worked in the office of the NC State Dept of Transportation.

Sometime in 2002 she was put on oxygen - with a concentrator at home and in her office and small portable tanks for the car.

She still smoked. After getting back from Charlotte Medical she managed to quit for a month and was able to walk to the end of the drive to get the paper. But something at work or at home bothered her so she started back. She managed to quit for good in July 08. But she never did feel better - maybe because by that time the lung cancer had already started to develop.

(I think this happened just before the April 99 episode. She was driving home from work when Big Guy, the old Toyota Land Cruiser that she loves, broke down outside of Shelby. It was on 74 going up the hill from Buffalo Creek. She called me on a cell phone. I found her sitting in the car, with the cold that was turning into bronchitis. It was bleak and dark and chilly. I managed to get Big Guy started and asked her to drive on to Gastonia so we could leave the vehicle at the Toyota dealer and not on the side of the road. She was miserable by the time we got to Mt. Holly. I suppose she would have ended up the hospital regardless but I always felt bad about making her drive.)

She has had a couple of pulmonary doctors - the first in Gastonia and the second one in Charlotte. She likes the Charlotte doctor OK but not the one in Gastonia. I thought he was all right but she thought he treated her like an old person.

She switched to the Charlotte doctor in January 04, not long after retiring from the DOT. She got the Long Leaf Pine award for her 40 plus years of service. Things went gradually down hill in the years since and on Nov 10, 08 we went to see her family doctor because of the growths that had appeared on her body. They turned out to be metastatic tumors coming from lung cancer.