When I was a young girl, I had a hen named Wimpy. She got her name because she had a game leg and limped when she walked, but that limp never slowed her determination. Wimpy laid 12 eggs and rolled them, one by one, to her nest. Then she settled…
Discussion
When I was a little girl, my mother often sent me to the cornfield with my father. I suspect it was partly to give her a moment of quiet, because I was at the age of endless questions. Daddy didn’t mind. He handed me a hoe and gave me a…
One year of treatment with tozorakimab, AstraZeneca’s experimental therapy, was reported to significantly reduce the annual rate of moderate-to-severe exacerbations, or periods of sudden symptom worsening, in adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). These are the top-line results from the global Phase 3 MIRANDA clinical trial (NCT06040086),…
Discussion
Navigating a diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a lot like driving one of those narrow West Virginia backroads with blind curves and no guardrails. The kind of road where you ease off the gas without being told, because you’ve lived long enough to know that what…
Discussion
When I was in elementary school, I told my parents that something was crawling on me at night. They exchanged the kind of knowing look adults give when they think a child is expressing emotion instead of sensation. They suspected school stress or a plea to sleep between them. But…
Discussion
People with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may know what to do in a breathing crisis, but that doesn’t always mean we will do the correct thing. When I was diagnosed, I knew that when my portable concentrator beeped to tell me I was running short on battery…
COPD is a chronic inflammatory disease of the lungs, in which the airways become blocked, causing cough with mucus, wheezing, and shortness of breath.
The causes of COPD are not fully understood. However, long-term exposure to lung irritants is known to damage the lungs and the airways.
Some people may also experience exacerbations, or episodes of sudden disease worsening, that may persist for several days.
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