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My Spirometry Results Range From Very Bad to Normal!
I was a smoker of 1 pack a day for 15 years. I am 44, 50 pounds overweight and in bad shape. I have always been in bad shape since im a couch potato.
I had a spirometry test done about a year ago at the doctors office. First reading of set of 3 the printout read "severe pulmonary obstruction" I say no way, this cant be right, I beg to try again. so on the second round I got one that said "moderate obstruction" and another that said "mild obstruction"
Doctor said to stop smoking and come back in a month.
I did that, and I made sure I had an empty stomach when I went back.
I blow 3 times. first one said "mild obstruction, second one said "mild RESTRICTION"
Now Im really determined and the last blow read "NORMAL SPIROMETRY"
Mind you, I had to blow every single of drop oof air out of my lungs to get to the normal, I think I was even spitting. I thought I was going to pass out or collapse a lung doing this final blow.
By the way I used an inhaler on all days and there was no difference with the inhaler.
Doctor wasnt too concerned. I was very nervous about the poor results and asked him how could I have a severe obstruction. He said that if I indeed had a severe obstruction I wouldnt be able to walk across the room with being winded.
My question to you here is, how could so many tests result in so many different readings from severe to normal, and what exactly is my diagnosos?
Do I have COPD?
I had a spirometry test done about a year ago at the doctors office. First reading of set of 3 the printout read "severe pulmonary obstruction" I say no way, this cant be right, I beg to try again. so on the second round I got one that said "moderate obstruction" and another that said "mild obstruction"
Doctor said to stop smoking and come back in a month.
I did that, and I made sure I had an empty stomach when I went back.
I blow 3 times. first one said "mild obstruction, second one said "mild RESTRICTION"
Now Im really determined and the last blow read "NORMAL SPIROMETRY"
Mind you, I had to blow every single of drop oof air out of my lungs to get to the normal, I think I was even spitting. I thought I was going to pass out or collapse a lung doing this final blow.
By the way I used an inhaler on all days and there was no difference with the inhaler.
Doctor wasnt too concerned. I was very nervous about the poor results and asked him how could I have a severe obstruction. He said that if I indeed had a severe obstruction I wouldnt be able to walk across the room with being winded.
My question to you here is, how could so many tests result in so many different readings from severe to normal, and what exactly is my diagnosos?
Do I have COPD?
Just because one test said 55% and the one a couple years earlier said 61 doesnt mean anything, in my opinion. Remember that test is not like an Xray, blood test, or CT scan, its dependent upon your EFFORT.
Maybe you were tired that day, maybe you didnt blow as hard, too many variables to just assume you will be loosing 6% of lung capacity every 2 years
Maybe you were tired that day, maybe you didnt blow as hard, too many variables to just assume you will be loosing 6% of lung capacity every 2 years
Hi ... I am 53 and diagnosed with COPD about two years ago with FEV1 of 58% ... then about a year later another spirometry said 61% and I was pleased with that ... and recently one year on from that my last spirometry said 55%. So I have dropped 6% in just one year and I dont smoke. At that rate I wont survive long. I was hoping that it would slow down since I stopped smoking 2 years ago.
When I was diagnosed I asked my doctor if copd was emphysema and he said no its copd .... I now know he was lying. He said that if I stopped smoking I would lose lung function at a normal rate and showed me a chart .... again he was lying or just plain wrong. I know there is nothing that can be done and I know that I have only myself to blame but I just want to know the truth so I can make plans for whatever future I have left and make arrangements.
When I was diagnosed I asked my doctor if copd was emphysema and he said no its copd .... I now know he was lying. He said that if I stopped smoking I would lose lung function at a normal rate and showed me a chart .... again he was lying or just plain wrong. I know there is nothing that can be done and I know that I have only myself to blame but I just want to know the truth so I can make plans for whatever future I have left and make arrangements.
Hi Jonkob,
Morning from the south coast in the UK, well, it's lunch time!
I totally understand where you are coming from! That's how I feel! But believe me, when I was first told by my own doctor that I had COPD, I didn't know whether to take it as a death sentence (my grandfather had emphesema) or be relieved that I didn't have lung cancer!
Is the glass half empty or half full????
I am just 54, (acting like a thirty year old) with a partner of 44, who is devoted to me, and is distraught at all this. While he is supportive, he can't handle the bad stuff, so who do you talk to? That's why I came on here.
My partner and I have had a **** 5 years, travelling up and down the UK to be with my parents, who had, and have, cancer. My mum and dad were divorced 30 years, mum remarried, and so now we also have step-father to keep an eye on. As I mentioned, we lost mum last year, dad was classed as terminal four years ago, but is still hanging on.
My partner and I were hoping to get our lives back on track this year, and now this. It is almost like we are doomed not to be together!
You and I have some similarities. I don't get winded walking either, so I disagree with your doc on that one. There is a scale, I forget the name of it just now, but you and I fall into the catagory of "breathless on exertion" - you with the stairs, me with hills etc. (I live in a bungalow, so don't know about the stairs)
My weight is an issue, too, but in the opposite direction. I am very underweight, and this creates difficulties for the lungs and heart, I believe. Also the prognosis is poorer for underweight people with COPD, so I have been desperately trying to gain weight.
I don't want to think that I have this either, After the initial shock, I have been burying my head in the sand a bit, hoping it will go away. I feel too young. There's a lot I want to achieve.
I will get to hear whether it is mild, moderate or severe when I get called back to the hospital when the pulmonary consultant gets the results of these last tests I had done on Friday. Apparently, she will look then at all the test results and will evaluate it from that.
A bit worrying, as I didn't feel these last ones I did too well.
After all the complex tests I have had done at the hospital, compared to the basic one spirometry at the GP's (the hospital spirometry was more more sophisticated and actually easier to blow into) I really think you HAVE TO see a lung specialist doctor, or whatever you call them over there, and be tested properly. To put your mind at rest one way or the other, if nothing else.
Your GP sounds a bit complacent to me. Surely if there was the slightest hint that you have COPD, be it emphesema, asthma, or severe bronchitis, you need to see a specialist to find out exactly which so you can get the treatment.
Yes, you feel a prat with an inhaler to begin with, crippled almost as well, but after a few times, you don't even think about it. And there's so many kids now with asthma that people don't take any notice if they were to see you, which they won't.
You will need to have the inhalers, JK, the main thing that I can gather, is to ease things now, avoid all irritants, and infections, to SLOW the progression of the disease. If you sit on your butt and do nothing, it will progress QUICKER! Which do you want???
You've done the hard bit - you've stopped smoking! I haven't cracked that one yet!!!!
We can get each other through this.
Morning from the south coast in the UK, well, it's lunch time!
I totally understand where you are coming from! That's how I feel! But believe me, when I was first told by my own doctor that I had COPD, I didn't know whether to take it as a death sentence (my grandfather had emphesema) or be relieved that I didn't have lung cancer!
Is the glass half empty or half full????
I am just 54, (acting like a thirty year old) with a partner of 44, who is devoted to me, and is distraught at all this. While he is supportive, he can't handle the bad stuff, so who do you talk to? That's why I came on here.
My partner and I have had a **** 5 years, travelling up and down the UK to be with my parents, who had, and have, cancer. My mum and dad were divorced 30 years, mum remarried, and so now we also have step-father to keep an eye on. As I mentioned, we lost mum last year, dad was classed as terminal four years ago, but is still hanging on.
My partner and I were hoping to get our lives back on track this year, and now this. It is almost like we are doomed not to be together!
You and I have some similarities. I don't get winded walking either, so I disagree with your doc on that one. There is a scale, I forget the name of it just now, but you and I fall into the catagory of "breathless on exertion" - you with the stairs, me with hills etc. (I live in a bungalow, so don't know about the stairs)
My weight is an issue, too, but in the opposite direction. I am very underweight, and this creates difficulties for the lungs and heart, I believe. Also the prognosis is poorer for underweight people with COPD, so I have been desperately trying to gain weight.
I don't want to think that I have this either, After the initial shock, I have been burying my head in the sand a bit, hoping it will go away. I feel too young. There's a lot I want to achieve.
I will get to hear whether it is mild, moderate or severe when I get called back to the hospital when the pulmonary consultant gets the results of these last tests I had done on Friday. Apparently, she will look then at all the test results and will evaluate it from that.
A bit worrying, as I didn't feel these last ones I did too well.
After all the complex tests I have had done at the hospital, compared to the basic one spirometry at the GP's (the hospital spirometry was more more sophisticated and actually easier to blow into) I really think you HAVE TO see a lung specialist doctor, or whatever you call them over there, and be tested properly. To put your mind at rest one way or the other, if nothing else.
Your GP sounds a bit complacent to me. Surely if there was the slightest hint that you have COPD, be it emphesema, asthma, or severe bronchitis, you need to see a specialist to find out exactly which so you can get the treatment.
Yes, you feel a prat with an inhaler to begin with, crippled almost as well, but after a few times, you don't even think about it. And there's so many kids now with asthma that people don't take any notice if they were to see you, which they won't.
You will need to have the inhalers, JK, the main thing that I can gather, is to ease things now, avoid all irritants, and infections, to SLOW the progression of the disease. If you sit on your butt and do nothing, it will progress QUICKER! Which do you want???
You've done the hard bit - you've stopped smoking! I haven't cracked that one yet!!!!
We can get each other through this.
Little Weed may I ask your age?
Wow your story sounds very scary. Noof course I realize that going up a flight od stairs is not supposed to make you winded, but I have always been winding going up the stairs at the subway for as long as I can ever remember. I mean, even before I was ever a smoker!
To put it plain and simple, im fat. Im 5' 11" and weigh 245 pounds. So I guessmy ideal weight is 180 so im 65 pounds overweight. I live in NYC and I do alot of walking and I'm fine, I donly get winded with flights of stairs, like the subway etc. But as I said, thats nothing new. I couldnt run 1 block with out passing out, but even 20 years ago I couldnt run one block.
You still smoke? I quit for 5 years, then last year while having a few drinks I made the mistake of having one cigarette and then I was right back to a pack a day, for about a year, I quit again about 3 weeks ago.
My GP doctor who did the spirometry said dont worry about it, you dont need an inhaler based on these tests, and if you had severe COPD you would be out of breath walking across the room. When I asked him in a panicky tone "do I have COPD" ? he no. But then when I looked at the chart I see he did write it in the findings.
Maybe I dont want to face the possibility of having this, or maybe I dont want to go to a pulmonary doctor and hear bad news?
Maybe its my hope that if I do have COPD it will be dormant and not require any medical do intervention (medication, inhalers etc) until Im in my 60s.
This is supposed to be a slow disease.
Do you know if yours is severe , mild, or moderate?
Wow your story sounds very scary. Noof course I realize that going up a flight od stairs is not supposed to make you winded, but I have always been winding going up the stairs at the subway for as long as I can ever remember. I mean, even before I was ever a smoker!
To put it plain and simple, im fat. Im 5' 11" and weigh 245 pounds. So I guessmy ideal weight is 180 so im 65 pounds overweight. I live in NYC and I do alot of walking and I'm fine, I donly get winded with flights of stairs, like the subway etc. But as I said, thats nothing new. I couldnt run 1 block with out passing out, but even 20 years ago I couldnt run one block.
You still smoke? I quit for 5 years, then last year while having a few drinks I made the mistake of having one cigarette and then I was right back to a pack a day, for about a year, I quit again about 3 weeks ago.
My GP doctor who did the spirometry said dont worry about it, you dont need an inhaler based on these tests, and if you had severe COPD you would be out of breath walking across the room. When I asked him in a panicky tone "do I have COPD" ? he no. But then when I looked at the chart I see he did write it in the findings.
Maybe I dont want to face the possibility of having this, or maybe I dont want to go to a pulmonary doctor and hear bad news?
Maybe its my hope that if I do have COPD it will be dormant and not require any medical do intervention (medication, inhalers etc) until Im in my 60s.
This is supposed to be a slow disease.
Do you know if yours is severe , mild, or moderate?
Blimey, you did 3 posts while I did the 1 !!!
Sorry, I only use three fingers.
I think I have answered them all in my one.
I will say that I had a chest xray 12 months ago that was normal, so in only one year the xray has gone from normal, to showing evidence of COPD.
I don't often cough, and don't have much in the way of plegm or mucus, only if I have picked up a cold or am feeling a bit "chesty".
The docs also gave me what they call a "red envelope" which is an emergency supply of steroids and anti-biotics, to be taken at the first sign of a chest infection. To be renewed after use, so they are always available.
Sorry, I only use three fingers.
I think I have answered them all in my one.
I will say that I had a chest xray 12 months ago that was normal, so in only one year the xray has gone from normal, to showing evidence of COPD.
I don't often cough, and don't have much in the way of plegm or mucus, only if I have picked up a cold or am feeling a bit "chesty".
The docs also gave me what they call a "red envelope" which is an emergency supply of steroids and anti-biotics, to be taken at the first sign of a chest infection. To be renewed after use, so they are always available.
Forgive me Jonkob, but do you not think that getting out of breath going up the stairs is a breathing issue?
I work outdoors in a very physical job. Problem is I work at the bottom of a hill, and rest breaks and tools, exit etc are all up the hill. I become out of breath about half way up and have to stop.
That's when I went to see the doc. initially.
Then in the mornings, I began to get a crushing feeling in the middle of my chest, like an elephant was sitting on my chest. This, I was then told by the nurse, was "hyperinflation" and was given two inhalers, Seretide to take daily in the morning, and Salamol (a reliever) to use as and when required. They worked a treat. The elephant went back to the circus, lol.
I did notice a difference. The only problem I had was the Seretide gave me terrible nausea in the mornings, which is a rare side effect according to the hospital consultant, who took me off it, and gave me Spiriva, which I've had no probs with.
You should really go by their advice. I think you would benefit from inhalers.
I am sorry about your dad. I lost my mum last year to colon cancer, which she had been told had been successfully treated 5 years ago. Then out of the blue, last Feb she was told it had come back, and gone to the lung and brain. She was given three months, but died after two.
I get a hint from you that you do want this sorted, because you are asking the
questions. but like me, perhaps after seeing your dad die, you think what the hell - cancer will get me or something else. Done it, worn the Tshirt.
Then I looked at my partner, knowing how much he is devoted to me, and think how can I not try to go on as long as possible. Do I want to destroy him too??
All I want is to know the facts in black and white so I can make informed decisions. For example, I don't know how long I can work for. Do I want to wait until I'm carting around an oxygen cylinder before packing in my job? I want some quality time left with my partner, not save it for working my butt off for peanuts.
I work outdoors in a very physical job. Problem is I work at the bottom of a hill, and rest breaks and tools, exit etc are all up the hill. I become out of breath about half way up and have to stop.
That's when I went to see the doc. initially.
Then in the mornings, I began to get a crushing feeling in the middle of my chest, like an elephant was sitting on my chest. This, I was then told by the nurse, was "hyperinflation" and was given two inhalers, Seretide to take daily in the morning, and Salamol (a reliever) to use as and when required. They worked a treat. The elephant went back to the circus, lol.
I did notice a difference. The only problem I had was the Seretide gave me terrible nausea in the mornings, which is a rare side effect according to the hospital consultant, who took me off it, and gave me Spiriva, which I've had no probs with.
You should really go by their advice. I think you would benefit from inhalers.
I am sorry about your dad. I lost my mum last year to colon cancer, which she had been told had been successfully treated 5 years ago. Then out of the blue, last Feb she was told it had come back, and gone to the lung and brain. She was given three months, but died after two.
I get a hint from you that you do want this sorted, because you are asking the
questions. but like me, perhaps after seeing your dad die, you think what the hell - cancer will get me or something else. Done it, worn the Tshirt.
Then I looked at my partner, knowing how much he is devoted to me, and think how can I not try to go on as long as possible. Do I want to destroy him too??
All I want is to know the facts in black and white so I can make informed decisions. For example, I don't know how long I can work for. Do I want to wait until I'm carting around an oxygen cylinder before packing in my job? I want some quality time left with my partner, not save it for working my butt off for peanuts.
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