1st Pulmonary test, what to expect.

[Sonsafc]

Hi everyone, I am attending my first Pulmonary tests in the morning. Not sure what to expect. States on appointment letter it will take 1hr 45mins. What will they have me do in this time. Nervous about test however I might finally get some feedback as to how this is affecting me, so I can look to going forward on this journey.

[mellyme]

welcome friend. let us know how it goes.

[Sonsafc in reply to mellyme]

I will do. Do you get results while you are there.

[y_not]

Nothing to worry about. They talk to you and then get you to do a 6 minute walk test youtube.com/watch?v=kwdlFN8...(Not working as expected?) as this sets a benchmark against which they will measure from a walk test at the end of the course - almost everyone shows some improvement!

Wear loose fitting clothing and expect to sweat a little.

Oh, and of course you'll meet others in a similar situation and learn about your condition and how to manage life with it

Best wishes

[Phil61]

If you do a full function test, you will blow into a machine through a mouthpiece in various ways. Hard, slow, fast etc. You will do this lots of times, at the end you will know your lung capacity o2 transfer rate and fvc,

( how much of total capacity you can blow out in 1 second).

This is the important one, if its a good number treatment can slow the illness down, mine is not good but I've been doing these tests for 7/8 years so you can track the progress of the illness.

The tests can be hard work but they are a good tool for the care team to have.

Good luck, heres hoping for good high numbers 😁

[Sonsafc]

Well, had the test. Oh dear, I struggled a bit to to the fast and slow breathing. Took 1hr 30mins to complete it. My poor lungs felt as if I'd done a full marathon. I did not get any results. Info is to be sent to my cardiologist, and he'll tell me the details. One good thing that came out of the time I was in there, during idle chit chat between tests, I mentioned I had been up since 4am. She then started questioning my sleep patterns, snoring and gasping for breath. After finishing her questionnaire, she informed me that it is possible I have sleep apnea. In a sense it was good news, as I've been having problems for 2, years now. She told me they would need me to do a sleep study. Anyone, could you tell me what this entails. Thank you for all your replies to my post. Sorry to be a pain and ask a lot of questions. I've just remembered, she told me to get the cardiologist to refer me for PR.

[y_not in reply to Sonsafc]

Sleep apnoea - first thing they will do is ask you to complete a questionnaire, this is the Epworth Sleep Study (you can try it online here britishsnoring.co.uk/sleep_... )

[Phil61]

PR, pulmonary rehab? Not had it myself but many have said it was good for them. Sleep apnoea test you wear a monitor for a week and it looks at how many times you stop breathing through the night or they observe you during an overnight stay. NO PROBLEM!!

Saw my doc today too. My lungs are now so bad I dont have to do function tests anymore, every cloud had a silver lining eh? 😬 Good luck

[Sonsafc]

Thx Phil for telling me what to expect. Sorry to here your lungs have deteriated. I hope my results are good, when I get them.

[Phil61]

I hope it's good news too, keep well eh?