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Health Update: Pulmonary Function Tests

Last Friday I had my first repeat of Pulmonary Function Tests (PFTs) since being told I need a lung transplant. You can imagine, I was quite nervous about them. Along the way I am making all kinds of decisions. So many of them seem like gambles, yet they are literally life and death. Luckily my PFTs were a confirmation that, for now, I am making the right decisions. The plan can still change at any time, but for right now, we are just pressing ahead with handling some more immediate issues I have to get under control before I see the transplant center.

As for the results, I must confess, given how much better I’ve been feeling, I was secretly hoping for a miraculous improvement that would wow everyone. What I got was a mixed bag, but the important part is that, for now, I have stabilized.

My forced vital capacity (FVC) fell three points, but my DLCO (the bigger problem right now) went up three points. Machines can vary from hospital to hospital. For some reason, my numbers are always lower at KUMed than at NIH, so the fact that they were about the same was happy news.
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