α¹ antitrypsin deficiency	Since 1999, I've been actively involved with the Alpha-1 community. They - we - are a dynamic bunch of people of all ages and positioned at various points on the continuum that is living with Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency. To follow this conversation...
On an early morning Tuesday in June of 1999, I was sitting at my desk at the office and talking with a co-worker when I found myself hit with a coughing fit. I've been a smoker since I was 16 and coughs, bronchitis and upper respiratory problems were nothing new to me. I held up a finger to excuse myself from the conversation that we were engaged in so I could cough. It had become a deep hacking cough (again). The next thing I knew, my co-worker was pressing me into my chair with one hand on my shoulder and another on my head. It seemed odd that she should be touching me. It seemed even odder that she was asking me in a rather loud and annoying voice if I was ok. Of course I was ok... or so I thought. Apparently...	Browse the Table of Contents  Click here to join me in my journey... or Click here to jump to my list of links or sign my guest book
- a model of the Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Protein
... I'd passed out while coughing and had begun to fall forward out of my chair, to my desk. Fortunately, my co-worker, Rhonda, was able to catch my head as it fell forward to the top of my metal desk. This is how I began my journey into what has become my very personal involvement with Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency or A1AD. This web page is intended to offer to others some of the information that I've been able to find on the internet and elsewhere about Alpha1-Antitrypsin Deficiency.	With the initial diagnosis, it can be hard to understand how this can possibly be a good thing... but it can be.       To better understand how or why I can feel this way, please follow this link.        How diagnosis can be good news.

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