BTS Sickfics

Taehyung's COPD

okay so i wanna talk about hte idea i had for another book

so basically its lke a dystopian version of seoul, where like no disabilites are allowed. so any kid that has disabilites is locked away

so the king is kim seokjin bc hes seokjin, and he believes in this, and thinks that disabled people have no rights, but the government passes a law saying they can go to public schools and stuff.

like i dont wanna spoil any of it bc then it wont be fun to read, but its like, mega angst.

if i wrote it, would you read it?

request by anonymous :)

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Taehyung's POV -

Two years ago, I was diagnosed with a lung disease called COPD. I have emphysema, which means that I have damage to the air sacs in my lungs. It can't be fixed, or reversed, so I have to live with the damage for the rest of my life.

At first, we thought it was asthma, and, when I went to the doctor, they thought it was asthma too. I was given an inhaler, which seemed to help with the breathlessness for a while, but, over time, it kept getting worse, and I kept getting more and more chest infections. The inhaler soon wasn't really clearing me up, so I went back to the doctor.

They said that my symptoms seemed similar to someone with COPD, but, since I'm young and healthy, and since I don't smoke, they didn't think it could be likely. They thought my asthma was just getting worse due to how much exercise and dance I do. I was given a stronger inhaler, but I was referred to a specialist, just to make sure my lungs were fully active.

Since I wasn't counted as high risk, or urgent, my referral kept getting knocked back, whilst people with worse problems took priority. I didn't mind too much, since my inhaler was working well enough.

After just a few weeks, the inhaler stopped working for me again. That was because I didn't have asthma. The damage in my lungs was getting worse due to lack of treatment. My appointment was finally treated as serious, and I got to meet a specialist.

I was given a chest x-ray, just to make sure it wasn't cancer, but they did see that I had yet another bad chest infection. I did a spirometer test, which came back way below average. Due to past complaints of breathlessness, chest infections, and constant coughing, I was diagnosed with COPD that day.

What makes me upset is that, had I been given the tests the first, or even the second time I went to the doctor, the damage wouldn't have been so bad. Now I'm left with a constant wheeze whenever I exercise, and chest infections that come with any illness I suffer, and a lot of the time I end up in hospital with them.

The thing about being diagnosed early, is you can delay the progression of the disease. The later it gets, the less time I have. At the stage I am now, I'll make it to my late 50s. COPD isn't something that can be cured, so it'll slowly keep getting worse and worse, until I eventually die. It's extremely scary to think I'm already halfway through my life.

It's not even like someone like me is likely to get the disease. It's usually older people who smoke a lot, not young, healthy people like me. The specialist put it down to me having a genetic condition that led to my diagnosis. There was no way I could have avoided it.

So far, I haven't noticed any differences since starting my new medications. I've had some really bad flare ups, which have landed me in hospital for days, but my day to day life, and living as an idol, hasn't changed yet.

I'm currently on one daily medication, and I have a reliever inhaler, and two emergency medications, just in case I have a flare up. One is a corticosteroid called Pulmicort, which I use as an inhaler twice a day. It helps open my airway, so I don't become so wheezy and cough all the time. I have the short term inhaler for when I do get wheezy in the day, which is pretty often when I have dance; it looks like a regular asthma inhaler. My emergency medications are a stronger quick relief, which is also used as a daily medication for people with worse COPD, and a mucoactive drug, which makes the mucus in my lungs thinner so I can cough it up. Grim, I know.