Back in the saddle after confronting COPD

November is National COPD Awareness Month – a reminder that the pulmonary condition can have devastating economic as well as personal consequences.  A recent study in CHEST projects that direct medical costs for COPD will skyrocket from $31.3 billion in 2019 to $60.5 billion by 2029.

For the individual sufferer, COPD, or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, is first and foremost life-threatening, as Regina Contrino discovered when she went into respiratory failure after contracting COVID-19 and pneumonia. Diagnosed with COPD in her 30s, the Putnam Valley resident had struggled with smoking for decades. It wasn’t until she was on the brink of losing her breath – and her life – that she made the decision to quit smoking cold turkey.

Now under the care of Nan Li, M.D., a pulmonologist at Northwell Health’s Northern Westchester Hospital https://nwh.northwell.edu/  in Mount Kisco, Contrino has taken significant steps toward managing her COPD. Once dependent on 24/7 oxygen, she has weaned herself down to using it only at night, under Li’s guidance. Li has also enrolled her in Northwell’s Westchester lung cancer screening program, which tracks and monitors high-risk patients, ensuring any lung nodules are followed closely for early diagnosis and intervention.

Along the way, Contrino’s 11-year-old Pit Bull, Gracie, and 16-year-old horse, Giuseppe, have played a crucial role in her healing. Once unable to ride due to severe breathing difficulties, she is now back in the saddle, finding strength and solace in her animals – and in her determination to write another chapter in her life story.