{"id":3472,"date":"2019-12-11T10:10:13","date_gmt":"2019-12-11T10:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/?p=3472"},"modified":"2020-02-20T15:49:15","modified_gmt":"2020-02-20T15:49:15","slug":"living-emphysema-end-story-con-power","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/respiratory\/living-emphysema-end-story-con-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Living with emphysema: the story of Con Power"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"background-color:#f2f2f2;color:#32373c\" class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-profile-box round ab-has-avatar ab-font-size-14 ab-block-profile ab-profile-columns\"><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-avatar-wrap\"><div class=\"ab-profile-image-wrap\"><figure class=\"ab-profile-image-square\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" class=\"ab-profile-avatar wp-image-3473\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/12\/07211315\/P3-Column-Patient-Story-Headshot.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/12\/07211315\/P3-Column-Patient-Story-Headshot.jpg 250w, https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/12\/07211315\/P3-Column-Patient-Story-Headshot-125x125.jpg 125w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/figure><\/div><\/div><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-content-wrap\"><h2 class=\"ab-profile-name\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Captain Con Power<\/h2><p class=\"ab-profile-title\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Ex-International Showjumper and Emphysema Patient<\/p><div class=\"ab-profile-text\"><\/div><ul class=\"ab-social-links\"><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Ex-international showjumper, 66-year-old Con Power, led an active life, but his 40-a-day habit finally caught up with him and he faced an unhappy diagnosis.  <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p>Con Power led an active\nlife, surrounded by the Irish hills of County Meath. Each morning he climbed up\nand down the hills attending to his four horses but, seven years ago, he\nnoticed himself struggling for breath. \u201cI would always go down to muck out in the\nmorning but be out of breath halfway back up the hill,\u201d he said. \u201cI knew I\nneeded to get my lungs checked out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hse.ie\/eng\/about\/who\/tobaccocontrol\/kf\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Con smoked two packets of cigarettes (opens in a new tab)\">Con smoked two packets of cigarettes<\/a> daily for 44 years, and spent most of his time in dusty stables. It was an interview for a radio station that prompted him to quit the cigarettes and go to the doctor about his shortness of breath. He said, \u201cI sat in my car and had one last cigarette, and I\u2019ve never smoked again since.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When Con was told he had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/respiratory\/a-spotlight-on-emphysema-and-copd-in-ireland\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"emphysema (opens in a new tab)\">emphysema<\/a> it was initially a shock, but the consultant was keen to stress that the condition can be managed. There have been some lifestyle changes, Con has given up competing and mucking out the horses although he still teaches. And he now enjoys a daily 20-minute walk in the morning to keep up his fitness. Most importantly, he never leaves the house without one of his inhalers. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ex-international showjumper, 66-year-old Con Power, led an active life, but his 40-a-day habit finally caught up with him and he faced an unhappy diagnosis. Con Power led an active life, surrounded by the Irish hills of County Meath. Each morning he climbed up and down the hills attending to his four horses but, seven years &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/respiratory\/living-emphysema-end-story-con-power\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":3474,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[130],"tags":[3980],"class_list":["post-3472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-respiratory","tag-respiratory-health-2019"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/12\/07211314\/GettyImages-846068270-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/12\/07211314\/GettyImages-846068270-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Your Future Career","author_link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/author\/harveyodonnell\/"},"vicky_index_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3472"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4317,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3472\/revisions\/4317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}