"Everyone has their own ILD."
People with ILD can have widely different disease trajectories. Some may progress slowly over years, and some progress more quickly within months from the time of symptom onset. Patients with IPF may have acute exacerbations of their disease, from which they may not recover to their prior baseline. Research is ongoing to understand why some people remains stable and others progress quickly. Your medical team will be doing everything they can to halt the progression of the disease. Unfortunately, some patients progress despite treatment.
Given the unpredictable nature of ILD, we recommend that you speak to your healthcare provider about advance care planning. In this planning process, you make the decisions about the type of healthcare you want if you happen to become unable to speak for yourself. This is a service expertly provided by our partners in the Palliative Care Clinic.
The below is a link to a video by Paul Centani, a patient who suffered from ILD and ultimately needed a lung transplant.