Joe Burns, who suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), talks to MARESE McDONAGH
MY PROBLEMS started about seven years ago when my lung collapsed. I was very frightened. I could not breathe. I did not know what was happening. I thought maybe I was having a heart attack.
I am 75 years old now, but I had no problem with my breathing until then. Well, I never noticed anything but my wife, Jean, tells me she was worried for quite a while. She noticed that I was often breathless and that I used to fall asleep in the chair – but everyone gets tired. Maybe if your health worsens slowly you don’t notice it yourself.
Most people never heard of COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). I didn’t until I was diagnosed with it and that took quite a while. When my lung collapsed my wife took me straight to the doctor, but she also quietly packed a bag. She didn’t want to frighten me, but she knew we would be sent directly to Sligo General Hospital.
I got pneumonia after that. And then I got pleurisy. Actually I was in hospital three or four times with pneumonia. I don’t think I’d be here today if I didn’t have the respiratory test. I was getting really anxious because my breathing was so bad. When I eventually had the test they diagnosed COPD and after that everything changed.
I was born in Jinks Avenue, Sligo, but I left in 1952 and I spent most of my working life in England. I was a carpenter and I spent a lot of time on building sites all over England, but mostly in Birmingham.
Most of my problems started after I came back to Ireland. I never had a day’s sickness in England and I lived there for 43 year.
The funny thing is, I didn’t smoke as a young lad. My brothers were very, very young when they started. My two brothers died of lung cancer – one was 51 and the other was 57.
I must have been 20 or 21 when I started to smoke. I used to drink alright and I suppose I started taking an odd cigarette off the lads in the pub.
I was a very heavy smoker then – up to 80 a day. And, of course, on building sites most people smoke roll-up tobacco. I’m afraid I smoked up to a year or two ago. Yes, I did smoke after my lung collapsed.
All the doctors and nurses say that smoking is the main factor in COPD. I think that maybe all the dust I was exposed to on building sites might have a part in it too.
We used to rip out old houses and there was always dust and we never wore masks in those days. I was also exposed to asbestos. I worked in houses where there was asbestos in the garage ceilings and we used to build filling stations which had asbestos in the ceilings.
I have oxygen every day. When I get up in the morning, I use the nebuliser and take two inhalers. I usually bring my “wheels” with me for support. I push the wheels and if I want I can use it as a seat or I can use it as a shopping trolley.
I cannot tell you how much better I feel since I found out about the support group. It is run by Michael McGloin from Sligo and we meet regularly. It is great to talk to other people who have been through the same thing. You don’t feel as anxious or depressed when you know you are not alone.
Things turned around for me after they did the respiratory test and diagnosed COPD. I did a rehab course after that and it really helped. You do it twice a week for 12 weeks. You do exercises and they give you advice about diet and medications.
Before I was diagnosed I kept ending up in hospital. I remember my breathing was so bad one New Year’s Eve that I had to go to hospital. I was lying on a trolley struggling for breath and there were several doctors and nurses poking at me. They could not make their minds up what was wrong with me and I was really frightened.
They had to ring the consultant who was at a dinner dance and he came in in his dickey bow. He took one look at me and told them to put me on the nebuliser. He had me sorted out in five minutes.
You can’t really bring a big cylinder of oxygen around with you and, of course, you can’t take it on a plane, but I have a great portable kit now that I saw at a support group meeting.
I can’t afford to get a cold. If I get a cold I go on steroids and antibiotics. I got the flu vaccine and I got the swine flu jab too. I might not be able to walk too far without the wheels, but I get out.
We live near Boyle in Co Roscommon and we have great neighbours who bring me into town on Saturday afternoons. I have a few drinks in my local, the Patrick’s Well, and I watch the football. Aston Villa is my team.
I would go abroad again. We went to Australia after my lung collapsed and we covered the country – Sydney, Perth, Melbourne. It was a great holiday. But I remember flying out from Knock once when I wasn’t so well and I thought I wouldn’t make it onto the plane.
I would advise people to have the test if they have problems breathing. And to do the rehab. And join a support group. The moral support is great.
COPD: how it affects sufferers
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is an umbrella term for chronic bronchitis and emphysema, a pair of two commonly co-existing diseases of the lungs.
According to Dr Terry O’Connor, respiratory physician at Mercy University Hospital, Cork, the condition, which affects an estimated 7 per cent of the population or 300,000 people, is most commonly associated with cigarette smoking.
Sufferers are divided into four categories ranging from mild to severe. Those who are worst affected will be on oxygen long term and some will require lung transplants.
COPD can be latent for several years so, according to O’Connor, “if everybody in Ireland stopped smoking today we would still see new cases for several decades”.
While the condition is not reversible, O’Connor stresses that early intervention is crucial and that sufferers can do a lot of things to modify the symptoms.
He recommends that people who are breathless have a simple respiratory test known as spirometry because once the condition is diagnosed, sufferers do a lot better with appropriate care and medication.
It has been estimated that one-third of people who die from respiratory illnesses have COPD.
