Dear Dr. Roach: After over 50 years of smoking, my wife has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and bad scarring of her lungs, but fortunately she doesn't have cancer. She had respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and no longer has nicotine cravings, but we aren't sure if it was RSV that killed her cravings.

She lies in bed day and night and only gets up to go to the bathroom. She walks 30 feet to the bathroom and gets out of breath. Her vitals are good for an ex-smoker, but oxygen therapy wasn't improving her oxygen level, which is 92%.

Also: Anything under 8,000 IU of vitamin D won't cause an overdose

Is there anything she can do to stop getting out of breath when walking to the bathroom? I encourage her to do leg and arm exercises in bed, but she isn't doing them.

— B.M.

De

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