Thursday, February 18, 2010
Had my PFT today
I had a pulmonary function test today to see what impact the pneumonitis (induced by radiation) had on my lung function. I haven't heard from the doctor, but the tech who performed the PFT indicated that my lung function looked just fine to him. Obviously he's NOT a doctor, and he didn't compare it with previous tests, but it's certainly encouraging that there's no obvious impact at this point. My understanding is that when lung function is compromised there are some tell tale signs on the graphs and calculations on the test results.
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thats awesome! i hope that your doctor calls you with only good news :)
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear that the "table read" was good, and I hope the rest of the report follows likewise. Sorry to hear about the doctors' problems communicating is impacting you. My experiance was the complete opposite--somewhat different issue, but the three of them did a conference call and the verdict came back "prednesone" in 5 minutes, but from what I've heard from other people, their ability to get along was *way* out of the norm.
ReplyDeleteFinal thought; the technician doesn't have the training or degree that a pulmonologist or oncologist has, but sees at least 10x the number of patients. You'll get more detail and an authoritative read from your doctor, but the odds that it will conflict with what you heard are pretty low.
I hope that it's good news all the way for you! I am cancer free two years and am trying to share tips with people. My worst side effect from chemo was heat, cold sweats, and insomnia. I work for ChiliTechnology so I started using one of these and it was a great help to me: ChiliPad (it's a mattress pad that lets you cool the bed down to any temperature you set - it has a range from 46 to 118 degrees). I also went on an all organic macrobiotic diet, which really helped with detoxing from the chemo (and I've never gone off the diet, because I feel better eating this way than I did before cancer). The other thing I did that was really important to my healing was watch tons of stand-up comedy. I really believe laughter is the best medicine.
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