DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I’m in my late 40s and was told I have COPD. Will I die? Is it like cancer?

I have smoked for 30 years. I can’t seem to stop. I cough real bad at night. Will you tell me more about COPD? – N.N.

ANSWER: You and I will die. We all do. But you are relatively young, and you don’t have to die from COPD even though it’s fourth on the list of causes of death.

You must, however, stop smoking. That is the most important facet of treatment, and it’s your way to a longer life.

If you need help, talk with your doctor. The nicotine patch, gum, nasal spray or nasal inhaler can lessen your cigarette cravings.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease consists of two illnesses: emphysema and chronic bronchitis. Most people with COPD have both illnesses, and most are or were cigarette smokers.

Emphysema is the destruction of air sacs, those delicate structures through which oxygen passes from the lungs into the blood. Emphysema’s primary symptom is breathlessness when exerting, and the exertion doesn’t have to be all that great to leave a person gasping for air.

Chronic bronchitis is airway (bronchi) inflammation that narrows the air passages and increases the production of thick mucus.

Its primary symptom is coughing that brings up thick sputum.

Neither illness can be undone. The progression of both can be halted by stopping the irritation of lungs from cigarette smoke.

Medicine can soothe airways, decrease mucus production and boost oxygen passage into the blood.

Many of those medicines come as inhalers. If need be, oxygen makes life livable when breathlessness makes simple tasks impossible. You’re not at that stage, but you’ll reach it if you don’t get a handle on your habit.

The booklet on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease discusses the causes of and treatments for emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Readers can obtain a copy by writing: Dr. Donohue – No. 601, Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Enclose a check or money order (no cash) for $4.75 U.S./$6.75 Can. with the recipient’s printed name and address. Please allow four weeks for delivery.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: My wife has been going through menopause for the past eight years.

We have not been intimate through these years. When I bring up the subject of intimacy, she quickly states that she doesn’t want to talk about it. She won’t even hug me.

My wife is only 53 years old. It seems like she will be going through menopause for the rest of her life.

I have been more than patient, but I would like to have my wife back. If you could give me some advice, it would be greatly appreciated. – J.T.

ANSWER: Menopause can lessen sexual drive, but it shouldn’t completely eliminate it, and menopause doesn’t usually drag on for eight years.

Sexual desire is a complex process that involves hormones, nerves, blood vessels, general health and the brain. The brain is, perhaps, the most important element.

Your wife needs professional help. Her total lack of sexual desire at a young age and for so long could be a physical problem, so the family doctor is the place to start.

If, as is more likely the case, it is a psychological problem, the doctor can start treatment for that, or can refer her to a specialist.

You have been more than patient.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: On behalf of the Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation, we would like to thank you for your recent response to a reader’s question on the syndrome.

RLS has a history of being undiagnosed and misdiagnosed. Educational pieces reaching the public are vital to increase awareness and understanding of this very disruptive condition. – G.B., executive director, RLS Foundation

ANSWER: Thank you, and thank you for making me aware of the RLS Foundation. Readers can get in touch with the foundation by phone at 507-287-6465 or on the Internet at www.rls.org.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I had a recent abdominal abscess that had to be drained.

No one has been able to tell me how I got it. I am feeling better, but am still taking intravenous antibiotics at home.

How did this happen? How long do you think I will have to stay on antibiotics? – W.C.

ANSWER: An abscess is a collection of pus, and it is often walled off from the adjacent body structures in a covering shell of fibrouslike tissue.

Pus fills the inside of an abscess. Pus is nothing more than a collection of white blood cells that have battled infecting germs. An abdominal abscess makes a person quite sick. You must have had a rough time of it.

The abscess could have resulted from a burst diverticulum – the pea-size protrusions of the colon lining through the colon wall.

Or it could have come from the appendix, which might have leaked bacteria into the abdominal cavity.

Antibiotics cannot get into an abdominal abscess easily. The abscess must be drained to achieve cure.

You have to stay on antibiotics until all signs of infection have gone – the drainage is minimal, your temperature is normal and your white-blood-cell count has dropped. That can take a month or more.

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible.

Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Readers may also order health newsletters from www.rbmamall.com

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