Living with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis

A little over two years ago my mom got sick and had to go in the hospital. She was experiencing congestive heart failure. We thought this was coming from her two heart attacks that she had five years earlier. The doctors ran many tests. EKGs, lung x-rays, lung biopsy, cat scans all of these test were done. The results were in. She was officially diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. We were shocked and also confused. We had never heard of this disease before.

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis is where your lungs get thick and hard. We took her to many specialists trying to find help or even a cure. They described to us what her lungs looked like. They told us that if we looked at her lungs with a cat scan they would look like a honeycomb out of a bee hive. The more progressed the disease is, the more honeycombing.

The symptoms for Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis are very similar to Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). Originally she was missed diagnosed with that. How the doctors described the difference to us was Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease patients have problems getting the air out of their lungs. Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis patients have problems getting air into their lungs. The symptoms can be shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing just to name a few.

There are many case studies going on about Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis, but there is no cure as of yet. They have recently come out with a medicine that may or may not help some patients. Of course my mom tried it, but it had no effect on her condition. This is a very serious disease that can progress slowly or quickly. It depends on each individual person. The average life span after diagnosis is five to six years. We were told that my mom had it for a long while before it was detected.

I have done a lot of research about this disease on the web. Trying to find information on Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis is hard. Truthfully, there is not much information to be found. All of my research has come to the same conclusion; there is no cure for this disease. There is also very little help for it.

Oxygen is given to the patients when there oxygen levels are not where they need to be. My mom has been on oxygen for two years now. She really does get along pretty well for someone in her condition. We recently found out that she now has Pulmonary Hypertension. I again went to the web for answers. What I found is that this occurs near the final stages of this disease.

I am writing this article not for sympathy, but to make people aware of this disease. I also want to let people know that you can still live life with this disease. My mom's condition, although very serious, has not slowed her down much. She lives her life to the fullest each and every day.

You can find out more about this disease by visiting the websites listed below.http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dci/Diseases/ipf/ipfhttp://ajrccm.atjournals.org/cgi/content/full/161/2/646http://www/pulmonaryfibrosis.org/ipf.htm