November 21 was World COPD Day. An underdiagnosed disease, which causes nearly 20,000 deaths per year in France and which can be very debilitating. The testimony of Franck, a patient diagnosed six years ago.
- Franck was diagnosed at age 44 as suffering from COPD after a chest scan and a breath test.
- This disease, which results in shortness of breath and cough, requires lifelong treatment and can be very debilitating.
- While COPD is underdiagnosed, Franck works within an association to make it easier for patients and doctors to identify.
“In the night or in the morning, I know how the day to come will go… If it rains or if it’s cold, it’s going to be complicated…”. Today, and for six years since the diagnosis was made for him in 2018, COPD (obstructive pulmonary disease) has shaped Franck’s daily life. “When I get up, I do a bronchial wash to evacuate the sputum accumulated during the night and then, anything that requires effort is complicated, I have to take my medication –bronchodilators, Editor’s note– twice a day and I’m on oxygen 24 hours a day, but I have to organize everything so I never have to rush, so I don’t have to run…”.
Cough and shortness of breath: “For me, it was the tobacco”
For this former furniture delivery driver, the cough and the feeling of shortness of breath date back much longer, almost twenty years before he put a name to his symptoms. “For me, who was a heavy smoker, it was normal, it was tobacco!” Until a worsening of his condition took him to the doctor. Chest scan, breathing test: the verdict is in, he has COPD. And his life changes. No more work requiring the slightest physical effort. After a long period of absence, he is now on disability.
There is no cure for COPD
However, at first, the diagnosis paradoxically gave him relief. “Because of my symptoms, I thought I had cancer, that it was the end, that I wouldn’t last long… So when I was told it was COPD, even though we immediately told me that there was no cure for it but that we could do something to prevent it from getting too bad, I was happy!”he remembers.
Reassured… but still experienced: “I still had a moment of depression afterwards, I felt physically diminished, and as I could no longer work, I told myself that I was no longer useful”. But he ended up finding the resources that allowed him to implement new lifestyle habits: “I obviously stopped smoking, and I force myself to walk, when I’m not too bad, several kilometers a day, to do a little weight training, cardio, physical activity is essential and unfortunately a lot of “Patients are afraid to move and get into difficulty, so they no longer do anything and enter into a catastrophic spiral.”
Mainly linked to smoking, COPD is a sometimes stigmatizing disease.
Despite everything, a certain amount of luck accompanied him from the moment he was taken into care. “I had access to a team that included me in a therapeutic education group and that helped me a lot, we always fight better what we know. I benefited from total support, They saved my life! Above all, it allowed me to join a patients’ association, which helps to stay positive, we tell ourselves that we are not alone and we can help others, theirs. allow them to talk about their illness without being stigmatized”. Because COPD, linked in 80% of cases to smoking, becomes for some a sort of shameful illness. “Myself, I was sometimes told by those around me that it was well done, that I just had to stop smoking…”, says Franck.
Beyond his treatment, his life today revolves a lot around this action. “I do very rewarding things, speaking out for patients really serves a purpose, like working to make COPD better known to both patients and doctors… I almost end up asking myself if I don’t prefer my existence today than before the illness!”
