PFT (Pulmonary Function Test)

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TinaL

Active member
Joined
May 3, 2013
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73
Diagnosis
06/2013
Country
CA
State
BC
I know others have posted about pain/tightness in the chest and ribs so I was wondering how many have had a PFT and what the results were. I went last week and it was a bad pain day so I am sure that had some bearing on my test results. My results showed my "lung age" as 76, I am only 49, other than that everything else was normal. Just curious about others who have had this test and their results. Thanks to all who respond. :)
 
If you are talking about lung function tests where you wrap your lips around a plastic tube and attempt to blow all the air out of your lungs or inhale, then yes, I have done this test in the past. It showed I could get air in, but not blow it out properly. It is a hard test and you can get really pissed at the people giving the tests sometimes because they make you think that they think your not trying hard enough, when you are really doing the best you can.
The chest and rib pain is often "costochondritis," you can look it up on the web. It is imflamation of the tissues and muscles between your ribs and can be very painful. The best treatment is using your heating pad and taking pills for pain relief. It can take a long time to go away, and the more you do the longer it takes for it to heal.
 
Thanks, 1sweed, at least I know what it is everytime my chest hurts when I breathe....
I know my chest pain is not heart-related coz of the position where it hurts....
I know I can't lift heavy stuff and such....
But yesterday I helped someone instinctively with some heavy groceries across the street....
It's only for about 10mins but immediately after, I can feel slight pain and discomfort in my chest and upper arms....
The pain got worse last night, I can't even lift my arms higher than my neck....
And my breathing became so laborious that I can only take shallow breaths to ease the pain....
Luckily, I've got my faithful Lyrica and Tramadol to tie me through the night....
 
Hi 1sweed and Fibromite yes that is my problem too,exhaling for as long as they say. Plus on the walking part of the test I couldn't walk as far/long as they expect because of fibro not breathing but tech did not seem to understand this. When symptoms first happened it scared hubby and he took me to ER where they even thought it was a heart attack but all tests came back normal. Now I know what it is and I just take a Tramadol, relax and know it will pass.
 
Glad I was able to give you some mental relief. When I first had attacks of this I too went to the emergency room thinking it was my heart. It of course was not thank goodness, but finding out what is was is a bigger relief.

I wanted to mention something that might be one cause of it. As you say over doing, whether it is lifting too heavy bags or bending over to sort or weed the garden, or just house cleaning can bring on a flare of costochondritis. Last night after doing some yard work I came upstairs to go to bed. My upstairs is really hot as I do not have an air conditioner. So I had a fan running sweeping back and forth over my face and chest area. I began to feel the twinges of the muscles in my chest and ribcage area starting to hurt.

I ended up moving the fan to keep it off my chest and turning away from the fan. This worked and the pain eased and I slept good. So take care in using fans when your having a flare because the cool breeze might make the condition worse. When I was in Florida, I had constant flares with this and with ear pain due to the air conditioning. But last night was the first twinge of it that I have had in a long time. I hope you feel better soon. :)
 
Thank you so much for the info about the fans. We have been having a heat wave and I have 3 fans in my bedroom (including a ceiling fan) and all of them have been on at night and blowing on me plus I have not been even using blankets or a sheet. I have been having a real bad flare for the past 4 days and could not figure out why until I read your post. Turned ceiling fan off,turned others away from me and covered myself with a sheet last night and woke up this morning feeling much better (just my usual morning stiffness). Hard to believe that something as simple as a fan could cause a flare but it makes sense now that I think about it.
 
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