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Mrs

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mary06751
mary06751

78 year old Australian. Looking after husband with IPF.

0 likes, 8 replies

8 Replies

  • jude65855
    jude65855 mary06751

    Posted

    I don't understand?  What is IPF?
    • hypercat
      hypercat jude65855

      Posted

      Idiopathic Pulmunory Fibrosis.   Idiopathic means the cause is unknown and most people's are.  Pulmunory Fibrosis is a serious lung disease. 

       

    • jude65855
      jude65855 hypercat

      Posted

      Thanks for the explanation, I do know about pulmonary fibrosis but didn't recognise the initials.  I know someone who died of this not long ago, a matter of months after diagnosis, and it was believed he'd developed it from working with and handlling wild birds for many years.  
    • hypercat
      hypercat jude65855

      Posted

      I know someone too who recently died of it but he had it for a number of years.
    • jude65855
      jude65855 hypercat

      Posted

      I guess it's like all the COPD group of diseases, it obviously depends on the stage at which it's diagnosed.    Lots of people cough and wheeze for years before they consult a doctor and get a diagnosis.   

      An acquaintance of mine (not too bright) told me the other day she doesn't have emphysema any more because she doesn't get breathless walking uphill - turned out she'd stopped walking uphill and was fooling herself she was cured!       

    • hypercat
      hypercat jude65855

      Posted

      And many do go but get dismissed as just a stupid smoker,  therefore go away and die,  we don't care.  Or they are an ex smoker - well it's just the result of smoking for so many years.  

      I was reading somewhere that the lung cancer survival rates in the UK are near the bottom and I am not surprised. 

       

    • jude65855
      jude65855 hypercat

      Posted

      If any medical person responded to me in that insulting and dismissive way I'd report them:  I've never heard of that sort of response, you must have been very unlucky.   
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