COPD AT 50

I am a 50 year old married man and have been smoking for the past 35 years, in the past 4 years i noticed that i was getting shortnes of breath but never to much notic and but it down to smoking and getting older, then this last year i felt even more shortness of breath, so i went to my GP who sent me of to hospital for some test, i do suffer with angina and ashma. anyway this Monday 06/10/2014 i went to see a consultant who done a Spirometry test, results 40%, she told me what that ment etc, i broke down in tears. she then had blood taken from me to be honest i can't remember why she had blood taken from me as i was just to upset at the time and did not take much info in at the time, she also wants me to have chest xray, echo sounds, etc. and will be sending me letters in the post with in the next 2 weeks.  i know the damage is done and i can't reverse that, but i have thrown the fags in the bin and havant had one since, and will not be having one ever again. at the moment i don't know what to do just to upset and scared. i had to retire from work 12 moths ago becasue of other problems that i had with my hip and knee, and plus i was having bad angina attacks last year. i read thing on the net about diff stages of COPD and from what i am reading i am at stage 2.  what I would like to ask others will I die at a young age if I turn my life around or is that it and just have to wait until things get worse and worse over the few months or few years, I don't know

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