Pulmonary Function Test

Despite my best efforts to make my lungs misbehave, they didn't. Instead, they worked quite well for the whole of the pulmonary function test. This was one point when I wanted them to be their normal messed up selves, and they decided to be a healthy normal. Great. Meaning that we basically learned nothing. Because nothing was wrong at the time, even if I DO have asthma, we couldn't tell, because the bronchiodilator naturally did nothing as nothing was wrong at that moment in time! VERY frustrating. All the bronchidilator did was raise my heart rate/blood pressure a bit and make my hands shake, which I was told was a normal response (I did have to take four puffs of the inhaler, so it probably was quite a high dosage).

The main thing that came out of this for me was three words that a flute player NEVER wants to hear in relation to their physiology: "Low Lung Volume". Now, this was a thing for me that stood out, simply because I have always been able to phrase with the best of them, meaning professionals. I'm not even kidding, I can give as much power and sustain as long as the two professional flautists that I have played with from time to time in the city's symphony when the youth symphony would team up with them. To be honest, even when my breathing is normal, I seem to be taking a few more breaths than normal when I play.

My overall thoughts were intense frustration...because all the test really did was cause me to miss two classes, spend an hour or thereabouts breathing into machines, and two hours on the bus commuting from the university to the hospital and back again. I guess I wait and see what Dr. H says...

The best case scenario is that this is asthma that just wasn't picked up by this test. If it IS because of my aortic insufficiency, it's a whole different ball-game...in particular because my body is then more sensitive to it than other people's. It also means there is no 'easy fix'.

Let's just say that I want to see Dr. H SOON to get a handle on this. I naturally started having problems breathing-although not as severe as on tuesday-about three hours AFTER the steroids, which would have of course worn off by then anyways. Sigh.

I wonder if it is possible to get addicted to the positions that I breathe best in...it certainly feels like I could. Perhaps at some point I will grow less awkward with them, but for now, I definitely feel uncomfortable with people seeing me in them for that purpose. I mean, yes, squatting down on the floor to pick up something, fine...ending up practicing like that for 45 minutes...slightly strange. Yes, I am glad that I have found a couple of positions that work to breath much better, and I have perhaps even found a modified squatting position that works for when I am sitting down-it involves slouching forward a bit, and having my legs bent under the chair...I discovered this in choir-but I don't want to have to use them!

Life. Just when you think you have things figured out...