Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Breathe in.... hold it!

I forgot to tell you about how my visit with the Pulmonologist went this past week. Remember when I told you I had to take a Pulmonary Function Test (PFT)? Well it turns out my test was "abnormal".

So abnormal that I get to do it again!

We didn't get into the nitty gritty of it but one of the first numbers in the control test was 300, pretty alright. The second time you do the test is with the help of an inhaler basically so the number should never be less than the first test.

Mine was 116.

He's sure that that means the test wasn't done correctly; therefore, he is reluctant to give me any kind of assistance not knowing what my true numbers are. But since I have symptoms of some kind asthma (like when I exercise my chest hurts, I have a wet cough, and I can't take a deep enough breath) he gave me Albuterol for my inhaler. I'm probably butchering the spelling of that, but that's what I've got. The two times I've used it since I have noticed a marked difference in how I felt and breathed so I don't know, maybe this is something I need in my life.

The good news is my insurance covered the entire cost of it so that was pretty nice.

I go for my second PFT and follow up right after it in March so it'll be interesting to see what comes of that.

Also this last week I went to Rheumatology again and my blood work continues to confuse everyone. Symptom wise, I have tenderness in joints and I display a lot of the things on the Rheumatoid Arthritis checklist except my blood work and (so far) I haven't had an inflammation. I'm continuing my Methotrexate for all of that so maybe that's why, but I'm starting to feel moderately better. I still feel like I have the flu all of the time but it isn't as severe as it was this time last year, so I feel like we're moving in the right direction anyways.

I'm heading into my 36th birthday in a few weeks and it's so strange to think I am going into it with a litany of health issues. Never would I have expected to be dealing with all of this at this point, maybe in my 50's or something, but not now. I definitely feel older than 36. Much older.

1 comment:

Lauren said...

I hate when you feel older than you actually are...I have things like that too, but obviously not anywhere on your scale, and that just sucks. I'm glad the meds/inhaler worked though and hopefully that will be something you can keep using, and yay for insurance actually helping!!!

-Lauren
www.shootingstarsmag.net