State of the Lungs Address

Well folks, it's that time again—3:30am when Jamie is coughing and decides to write a blog! Yay for that... not exactly.

Anyways, I had a doctor's appointment today and, well, it did not go so great. It was a follow-up to my December appointment, in which my PFT numbers were lower, so they had me do a course of antibiotics by mouth, at home. So basically, this was a check to see if I'd gotten better or not.

I did my PFT (pulmonary function test) and was shocked by the results, a bad shocked. The lady asked me "Have you been sick?" I said no. But even after a few more tries, my numbers never improved. At that moment, she grabbed a pulse/ox and my oxygen levels were only 94%, which is not terrible but fairly low for me as I am usually in the 97%+ range. I can't remember the total volume of air I blew out, but my FEV1 (which is the amount of air blown out within the first second) was at 33%. This was 10% lower than last time, in December, which is a huge drop. What this all means is that for a person of my height and weight, my lungs are expelling 33% of the air they should be. In other words, 33%-ish of my lungs is working, the rest is sort of on sick leave. There are other amounts measured in the PFT, such as total volume and FEV2 (2 seconds) but the FEV1 is what most of their diagnosis is based on. I'm not totally sure as to why this is, but studies and such over the years and years of CF care have shown that this number, more than the others, indicates most accurately how the person is feeling and the rate their lungs are declining.

This all was quite a shock for me, actually. I have not felt terrible and my cough hasn't been outrageously bad (the cough is usually what signals to me that it's time for a tune-up.) I'm a tad short of breath, but even that isn't that bad. So as I was sitting waiting for the doctor, I was on the verge of tears. The news was just unexpected and I didn't think I should be coming back in the hospital this soon, which is what I knew we would have to do.

So, yes, this means a trip to the hospital for me. I am planning to go in next week. I guess I should be thankful I don't feel that bad that I need to come in tomorrow. Jarrod and I will celebrate our anniversary this Saturday, and I would like to at least enjoy that (as much as I can.) We've been together for five years. Also, I wanted to see our friends at Trivia Night this weekend too.

I'm pretty bummed about the whole thing, but I'm sure tomorrow will be better. This is all just a part of a 'routine' for me, so it's nothing too crazy, I suppose.