What is IPF (Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis)?

“Idiopathic” means no cause can be found. The kind of job you have may affect your risk of getting the disease. For example, coal miners, ship workers and sand blasters are at risk. Smoking can boost your risk or make your illness worse. Unfortunately, the origin and progression of the disease is not completely understood, so misdiagnosis is common.

Pulmonary fibrosis is the end stage of interstitial lung disease, a large group of disorders that cause progressive lung scarring. The current thinking is that pulmonary fibrosis begins with repeated injury to the lining of the alveoli, the small air sacs in your lungs. The damage eventually leads to scarring (fibrosis), which stiffens your lungs and makes breathing difficult.

Kent has displayed a number of symptoms over the last several years. Individually, the symptoms did not cause reason to believe there was an underlying larger problem.

Some common symptoms include:

• Shortness of breath
• Chronic (dry) hacking cough
• Fatigue and weakness
• Chest pain and discomfort
• Clubbing (abnormal enlargement of fingernail bases) of the fingers and toes

This is what Kent’s NEW lungs will look like:

Click Here to find out how you can help support Kent with his double lung transplant and recovery.