I was diagnosed in 2015 and my only hospital stays have been due to my hickman c

All, ..
Electronic health records are invaluable. By law, hospitals now have to have them. The ER you go to should be able to access your records at another hospital. It might take a phone call or two but providers know how to do this.

Heather,
As far as a pH special hospital etc. That ain't going to happen in my neck of the woods. Matter of fact my pulmonologist doctors are affiliated with one hospital here in town. When I was in the hospital in March the facility doctor or floor doctor whatever was consulting with my pulmonary doctors. However my pulmonary doctors do not have anything to do with the second hospital in my town. That is the hospital I went to last November when I broke my funeral home. And after my experience at the hospital in March of this year where the pulmonary doctors are affiliated with I really don't want to go back to that hospital. And when I was in the other hospital with my broken leg they seem to treat the pH okay I guess. That could have been though because I wasn't there for lung problems I was there for broke bones. Let me just say well hopefully I don't have to go back to the darn hospitals anytime soon. And my wishes for everyone in this group that they don't have to go in the hospital anytime soon. Wouldn't that be nice?

Ann,
Technically I'm in the group for idiopathic pah. You go into the idiopathic who group when there are not the underlying health causes like so many of you have other conditions that cause the p a h They can't say for sure that the COPD caused it. Or it could be something from diet pills and or many years ago my past involving some drug use for a while. Not my proudest moment but I'm proud that I overcame it and dealt with it and it's no longer a fact of my life. The medical doctors don't know about any drug use 40 years ago. I just came to the conclusion from my research on pah that it's possible could have been caused by past drug use. I figured the doctors don't need to know about a drug history from 40 years ago anyway. Cuz for one thing I don't want that in my medical chart because they act differently towards you when you've had a drug issue. And besides that reality it doesn't really matter I've got the damn condition and here it is and that's reality so what difference does the other stuff make really. When you get down to the real nitty gritty of it all. They sure don't seem to be doing much with the COPD as far as treatment goes. They definitely actively treat the pah much much more than they worry about the COPD. I don't know if because p a h is so uncommon that they don't get those cases in much and so they're all gung ho for the pah I can't really say. I have my theories and my whole whatever centered around this medical care and stuff but yeah I won't go into that.
I JUST WANT TO SAY I AM SO GLAD I FOUND ALL OF YOU PHERS AND THIS WEBSITE, AND THANK YOU FOR WELCOMING HERE. Yes that was all caps because I want to shout about my happiness about finding this site and you all so I'll shout it from the rooftop of the tallest building. Funny haha LOL

Was your COPD the cause of your PH? In which case I believe thst the primary treatment protocol is to focus on the underlying cause. Nonetheless, the focus of all treatment regimes is to reduce the pressure, and thereby slow down the progression. Just make sure that PH specialists are always involved if it has anything to do with your heart or lungs.