A bit about me, my background.

I'm a 29 year old mom to 6 kids. I am a full time college student and have been married for 10 years. I am also a WAHM with a couple of websites and am an Independent Beauty Consultant with Mary Kay.

As a child, I had hives and was put on benydryl at the age of 4. I stayed on daily dosages to "maintain" my hives, though I was in misery most days, until the age of 13 when we moved from OH to FL. I was active in grade school, participating in basketball and ran track. After the move, I still had to take benedryl, but not as often and eventually my hives turned into sinus problems. I walked to school every day, and by high school I was involved in JROTC Raiders (sort of like Rangers only we didn't jump out of planes, it was a lot of physical training) and started running more and joined the Cross Country team my jr year.
At the age of 19 I moved to VA to get married. I continued to run in college and before I got pregnant with my first child in August. I rode my bike 2 miles a day and after the first trimester, I was walking about 2 miles a day instead.
My problems started after the birth of my first child in 2000. I had pnuemonia (which I've had a couple of time throughout my childhood, but this was the start of the pnuemonia coming back) shortly after his birth and was put on bedrest. A year later, I got it again.
By 2004, I have had pnueomia about 3 times and several upper respitory infections. In 2005, I started to have numberous spouts of pnuemonia, about 3-5 times a year. By 2006 it was up to 6 times a year, I would get pnuemionia (not counting the upper respitory infections I had). I was diagnoised with asthma and allergies in 2005 and started treatments for that.
No one could figure out why I was so sick. I moved from VA to SC in 2001 and from SC back to VA in 2006. We just moved to WA this past July. So I was sick in different parts of the country, not just isolated to one area.
By New Years 2007 my husband and I were really concerned. Once again I was in the hospital with pnuemonia and I was placed on oxygen because my levels were in the 80's. Doctors were no help, they didn't refer me, they didn't even say anything about it except "wow, you have pnuemonia again?" and that would be the end of that conversation. By May of 09, I had a doctor ask me how many times I've had pnuemonia and I said 4-6 times a year since 2005. He said that wasn't normal, walked out, gave me my prescription and told me to have a nice day.
I finally called a pulmonologist and scheduled an appointment later that month. By June I was prepping for a bronchosopy.
I had my bronchosopy June 12, 2009 and was told by my Pulmonologist that it's likely that I have COP. (cryptogenic organizing pneumonia). I'm 29 years old and feel like an 80 year old with my breathing problmes. I am no longer able to run, or even walk up the stairs for that matter without shortness of breath.
I'm on predisone for the COP and my new pulmonologist tells me that the steriods are working. I can't tell a difference in my breathing, but my energy level has shot up. I'm not as tired and I am able to accomplish more in my day. Not sure if it's the meds giving me the energy or the lungs getting better, or a combo of both.

Would love to meet others with COP, since everyone seems to put the "D" at the end and talk about how they know someone with COPD. I have to keep correcting people and then they look at me weird.