I suggest you touch base with your doctor ASAP so you can get the help you may need.

Taking a step back here to ask for a clarification or to add my two cents on defining “last stage” vs being ready to transition away from this life and on to anything which may await us in any next life which one’s faith promises, @A MyCOPDTeam Member

“End Stage” or “Last Stage” is just a term where the COPD GOLD SCALE stops counting. Usually any pulmonary function test (PFT) with FEV or FEV1 results of <30% of “normal” function (with “normal” as defined for healthy people of the same age, gender, height and weight).

Because the medical experts have noticed that they stopped counting too soon in the labeling process, they have now added into their assessment tool values for tracking exacerbation or hospital admission frequencies…

As you can see, the science is still evolving as treatment options improve, they understand that exercise (no matter how slight) helps, etc., etc., etc.

Frankly, though, there is no scale which accounts for an individual’s determination and willingness to keep on fighting despite all odds to the contrary.

So, if you’re really asking, “Am I at the end of life for ME?”, that’s a harder question to answer because none of us have a date stamp on our butt.

The revised scale with the A-D sub-sequential categories are the latest way to try and predict life expectancy (notice that I didn’t say “quality of life”), but even that is just a best estimate, because we haven’t been able to bottle and quantify the human spirit, which keeps going on regardless of challenges, tragedies and fatigue.

I remind anyone reading this opinion post that I took care of my Mom in the last year of her life, after she was sent home to die in peace with the help of hospice, myself, my siblings and their spouses, and she outlived all expectations when they sent her home to die, so I’m not just opinionated but have first hand experience with being unable to plan because life surprises us all.

(Still too wordy, Part 1 of 3, in the hope of providing some comforting perspective)

Sunday afternoon, 03-DEC-23

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A MyCOPDT...

Part 3 of 3, @A MyCOPDTeam Member (almost done butting in)

F is in the stage I call, “Talking to her angels”, because I don’t have a better way to describe what she and my Mom and my brother went through at the end. Until you are in a semi-sleeping stage, largely preoccupied with what’s going on behind your eyelids, uncaring of what the world is getting up to, then there is still hope and today is not your day.

I hope this answer helps you to tell the difference between anxiety at not having enough time left in this world, wishing to exert control over your passing, and actively “transitioning”.

I’m sorry to say I have found no better answers to the readiness question for dealing with knowing when it’s your time. By the time you know, you don’t care. As the newest COPD GOLD STAGES change still can’t effectively document and quantify. There is no estimating the human will to live and defy the odds.

While I think you can lie down and actively will yourself to die, it takes incredible strength of will and refusal to engage in life, refusal of food and water, and refusal to care for the consequences of passing into the unknown. For most of us, today is not that day. If this was your question behind the question, I hope my 2 cents of an answer helped.

I, too, get that chest pain / back pain / heart racing throb, and while the doc has checked me out regularly and can’t find any new comorbidities, as scary as the episodes are, I still keep chugging along.

End of Part 3 of 3.
I’m still too wordy.
Sunday afternoon, 03-DEC-23

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A MyCOPDT...

You do need to see a doc or go to urgent care when you feel as you describe. You need to find out what's causing the pain and if it's related to your COPD or something else (which is very possible). It sounds to me as though you could be experiencing both cardio and pulmonary issues and both need to be addressed.

Part 2 of 3, @A MyCOPDTeam Member:

For the last year I have been helping to care for a former boss / friend, F, who was warehoused in 2019 after being diagnosed with dementia in about 2014.

Last November / December / January, F fell and they figured out she broke her back (multiple hairline fractures). They thought she was at end of life because she could not cooperate with her care needs, and took to her bed. I prayed daily that she’d simply go to bed and not awake, to be finally released from the torment her life had become,

One day, in March, she decided to get out of bed on her own, and rejoined the land of the living. Her injury and pain forgotten by her tricky memory, which was either hiding the pain or no longer triggering her pain sensors. (As you know, I’m not a doc, so I can’t explain what happened better than that).

This all worked well until the Tuesday before this recent Thanksgiving, when she fell and broke her hip. In pain, unable to advocate for herself, the wild animal returned, as she began kicking, biting, hitting and screaming. After a hip replacement surgery, the hospital exiled her to anywhere but their care, and she has stopped eating and drinking, for the most part.

You would think - with her determination to be left alone and die - that she would have passed by now. But, it’s not that easy. She asked for Tea yesterday and was given a cuppa. She was comforted by its warmth, but still didn’t drink more than a sip or two.

So, with these two stories of being nearby folks at end of life, until you take to your bed and stop participating in life, you may surprise yourself by how long you can live. Regardless of your frustration with your quality of life.

You get bored (what Mom said happened after she fell to the floor and laid there insensible for days until my sister found her on the floor, she got her second wind, was hospitalized, and still didn’t pass away). If any part of life still interests you, and you’re tending to your bodily functions, are awake and aware, then it’s not time yet.

Even if you take to your bed, it doesn’t mean you’re ready to go.

Still too wordy - it’s going to take 3 parts. Sunday afternoon, 03-DEC-23

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A MyCOPDT...