Hello my name is Charlotte Buchanan now. Well let me say I've had a very hard life. I didn't know about Alpha-1 until I was 49. I was getting sick a lot, but didn't stay in the hospital at first. When I was 45 they said I had asthma, then when I turned 47 I was diagnosed with COPD and then I had a lot of testing done and it was discovered that I have lung problems and maybe liver or kidney problems and they told me that I was born with Alpha-1.