On an early morning Tuesday in June of 1999, I was sitting at the office 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, bronchitus 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. 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.

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 Alpha1-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.

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