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Not a doc, @A MyCOPDTeam Member, but once the damage is done, it’s usually irreversible unless you do a surgical intervention to remove the damaged lung tissue.
That being said, your question is “How long can I stay at the stage I’m at?”, and that, too, is a complicated answer.
With air quality issues like wild fires and pollution, frequency of further damage from chest colds and pneumonias, etc., your lungs have become your weak spot.
In my case, I was stable with 33% lung function, despite living in Northern California, where wildfires have a “season” for increased risk factors for my lungs. In 2009, however, I was sent to China for a 7-day work trip. The air quality / pollution was so bad that it looked like an overcast, foggy day for the entire time I was there.
I coughed up blood and crud the whole time I was there, but didn’t get any kind of specific illness or chest cold. However, the damage was done and my lung function started to drop precipitously, and appears to have stabilized at about 26-28%. Or, Stage IV. Severe.
Everyone has different triggers that their bodies respond to: damp air, hot weather, cold temps, etc., as well as perfumes, molds, mildews, etc. If you stop smoking and don’t hang around in 2nd hand smoker areas, if you exercise regularly, if you get all the recommended vaccinations, etc., and there are no climate or seasonal related triggers… You might be as bad as you’re ever going to get.
There are no guarantees with this disease label, though, even though you’re had a warning shot across your bow. You just have to do your best to keep living your life to the fullest, enjoying every day, and trying to ensure that you don’t catch colds or pneumonia's to decrease your lung function through additional damage.
Talk to your doc, and have a treatment plan ready in case you have a flare. Then you just keep living every day and exercising to help you stay your best for as long as possible.
Hugs, as I know this isn’t any kind of guarantee.
Saturday afternoon, 25-OCT-25
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