LUNG UNFOLDING

    Home Spirometer 

The testing for my third-year anniversary of the lung transplants went really well. It began with a CT Scan at 7:30AM where we met a 4-week transplant person in the waiting room. She had Covid then got RSV, which totally destroyed her lungs. Imagine. What a shock.

We chatted waiting for our scan while Michael was talking with her husband in the waiting room. They were a really wonderful, supportive couple. She asked me if I had one piece of advice for her. I did.

From the CT Scan we headed to the Lab for the spirometry test (lung capacity). Something that has bothered me was my spirometry scores. I’m around 2.15 and was happy until I ran into women and men who were in the 4-6 range. After transplants, the lungs continue to unfold up to two years. After that, no more expansion is possible. 

Since I had the collapsed L2 before the transplants, I no longer had my regular gym routine and had difficulty just walking with a walker/cane. I didn’t go back to the gym until over a year after the transplants, but at a much lower level of exercise. Through the years, I wondered if my lungs had fully expanded.

From the Lab, we walked to the transplant clinic and met with one of my favorite doctors. She asked me to do my home spirometer in front of her and said I had good form. I told her about being worried about my low score. Pulling up the CT, she showed me that my lungs were fully expanded.

What a huge relief. 

Telling her that I was concerned that others had such higher scores, she said I was a tiny woman with small lungs. Others were much larger people with larger lungs and capacity. I started to laugh because I still don’t think of myself as a “tiny” person! If you have read the previous blogs, I had to lose well over 100-pounds to be approved for the transplants. I also asked it they had to shave the bottom of the lungs to fit into my body, she checked and said no. 

Two mysteries solved in one appointment! Lungs fully expanded. Lungs fit into my chest cavity. 

So, what piece of advice did I give to the woman while we were waiting for our CT Scans? Exercise to make sure the lungs are fully expanded before the 2-year deadline.