Meet Kathi MacNaughton, New COPD Expert and COPD Caregiver

I'm happy to join the the StopSmokingConnection site at HealthCentral.com! I am a registered nurse who has had many years of caring for and educating people with COPD, and the last few years, I've also become a caregiver for my mother, who has end-stage COPD and is on continuous oxygen. Oh, and my dad died about 10 years ago from complications of COPD. So I know firsthand the toll COPD can take on a person's life.

I have my own respiratory challenges, having had mild asthma most of my life. I'm fortunate in that my asthma has never required me to be hospitalized and, though persistent, is just classified as mild to moderate. But it has interfered with my active lifestyle at times, so I think I can relate at least a little bit to the challenges of living with COPD, since they are both chronic respiratory conditions.

As a health professional (registered nurse), I have spent my entire career teaching people how to manage their health so that they can live healthy, happy, productive lives, despite any challenges they might be dealing with.

In the last few years, I've been writing health education content for a number of allergy and asthma websites, including both MyAsthmaCentral.com and MyAllergyNetwork.com here at HealthCentral. I really enjoy taking medical information and morphing it into language that anyone can understand.

My goal in joining this site is to give you the tools you need to succeed at living well with COPD or in caring for someone with COPD. I hope you'll join me in continuing to learn about this disease and how to manage it.