Pulmonary Function Tests

Today, I visited the Dartmouth General Hospital for some Pulmonary Function Tests(PFTs). In other words, we were testing how well my lungs are working. We want to be sure my lungs are healthy prior to SCT plus we want to have some data to compare against future tests. Generally, there are three kinds of PFTs:
Ones that measure how well the lungs exhale
Ones that measure how much air the lungs can inhale
Ones that measure how effectively the lungs can transfer oxygen into the bloodstream
I only needed to have two of the above tests.

The first test I had was called a Forced Vital Capacity....it measured how much air I could exhale during a forced breath. After putting on my attractive nose clips, I started off breathing normally into the mouth piece. Then, I had to take a deep breath and blow out with a huge blast of air and keep exhaling as much as I could out of my lungs.....then I took another deep breath in. I did this 3 times to make sure we got an accurate reading. Forced expiratory volume is the most important measurement of lung function.

The 2nd test I had was called a Diffusion Capacity Test. Lung diffusion testing is used to determine how well oxygen passes from the air sacs of the lungs into the blood. The test measures the "diffusing capacity of the lung for carbon monoxide" How the test is performed:
You breath in (inhale) some gas containing a very small quantity of carbon monoxide, hold your breath for 10 seconds, then rapidly blow it out (exhale). The single exhaled gas is analyzed to determine how much carbon monoxide was absorbed during the breath.

The Respiratory Therapist told me that my results were in the normal range. This is good to know, considering all the chemo I have already received. Hopefully, my lungs will stay healthy after the SCT!