[healthwork] Lungs update
Sep. 26th, 2016 06:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaberettProbably-final appointment with the respiratory clinic happened this morning! My lung function tests all came back looking exactly as one would expect/hope for someone healthy, and in particular I show no reversibility with salbutamol, so I'm not being given an asthma diagnosis but I am being given a diagnosis of reactive airway disease, allergic and non-allergic, with the family history of unambiguously-asthma noted.
The registrar (who had two students in) was effusively pleased about my peak flow log -- I'd been intermittently compliant at best but I'd plotted it all up in a spreadsheet and noted when I was in markedly different environments (Stockholm and Edinburgh, rather than London), and observed that there really wasn't a great deal of variability in my peak flow. "That's the best peak flow log I've ever seen," he said, which was cheering -- with many thanks tome_and for holding my hand through getting it into a comprehensible-to-other-people state during my executive dysfunctional flailing last night.
I confirmed that it was A Good Idea for me to continue getting flu jabs on the NHS (and that A, as my primary carer, Also Qualifies) in spite of the absence of an asthma diagnosis. The hospital lost my blood results so we're doing another round of checking IgE levels + full bloods in me, and the numbers will get included in the letter to my GP. I'm to switch from loratadine to fexofenadine, which is non-drowsy and apparently Generally Better for my use case; I'm also to continue with the steroidal nasal spray, and it's fine for me to split my doses so's to minimise discomfort.
And the reduction in reactivity to smoke that I'd noticed since the last respiratory appointment... is genuinely plausibly actually that we'd added in the nasal spray. Because: I don't respond to inhalers, but apparently it Really Is the case that getting my upper airway reactivity better controlled (via better antihistamines and also the steroids) will plausibly mean that lower airways/lungs are more resilient too, so it's not just that I made it all up/the placebo effect of Being Taken Seriously and getting Medical Attention, probably, but an actual physiological mechanism, which is also nice because (a) I had been noticing and (b) I had been fretting.
I'm to request a referral back should things take a turn for the worse again, but as they'd just be monitoring at this point... yeah. Apparently UCH isn't set up to do the additional set of tests that might provide a conclusive answer (inhaling doses of histamine and tracking my responses), but that wouldn't actually make a difference to the management strategy.
I am so, so relieved that my lung function is basically fine and this is basically manageable and that I can just stop worrying about irreversible lung damage. Like, even if the reason I can broadly stop worrying is having won the EDS scar-tissue-formation roulette -- I am so, so relieved.
The registrar (who had two students in) was effusively pleased about my peak flow log -- I'd been intermittently compliant at best but I'd plotted it all up in a spreadsheet and noted when I was in markedly different environments (Stockholm and Edinburgh, rather than London), and observed that there really wasn't a great deal of variability in my peak flow. "That's the best peak flow log I've ever seen," he said, which was cheering -- with many thanks to
me_and for holding my hand through getting it into a comprehensible-to-other-people state during my executive dysfunctional flailing last night.I confirmed that it was A Good Idea for me to continue getting flu jabs on the NHS (and that A, as my primary carer, Also Qualifies) in spite of the absence of an asthma diagnosis. The hospital lost my blood results so we're doing another round of checking IgE levels + full bloods in me, and the numbers will get included in the letter to my GP. I'm to switch from loratadine to fexofenadine, which is non-drowsy and apparently Generally Better for my use case; I'm also to continue with the steroidal nasal spray, and it's fine for me to split my doses so's to minimise discomfort.
And the reduction in reactivity to smoke that I'd noticed since the last respiratory appointment... is genuinely plausibly actually that we'd added in the nasal spray. Because: I don't respond to inhalers, but apparently it Really Is the case that getting my upper airway reactivity better controlled (via better antihistamines and also the steroids) will plausibly mean that lower airways/lungs are more resilient too, so it's not just that I made it all up/the placebo effect of Being Taken Seriously and getting Medical Attention, probably, but an actual physiological mechanism, which is also nice because (a) I had been noticing and (b) I had been fretting.
I'm to request a referral back should things take a turn for the worse again, but as they'd just be monitoring at this point... yeah. Apparently UCH isn't set up to do the additional set of tests that might provide a conclusive answer (inhaling doses of histamine and tracking my responses), but that wouldn't actually make a difference to the management strategy.
I am so, so relieved that my lung function is basically fine and this is basically manageable and that I can just stop worrying about irreversible lung damage. Like, even if the reason I can broadly stop worrying is having won the EDS scar-tissue-formation roulette -- I am so, so relieved.
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Date: 2016-09-26 09:55 pm (UTC)And yay for less reaction to smoke!!
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Date: 2016-09-27 07:30 am (UTC)We have tried me on A LOT of inhalers of various form factors over the years, and the only difference even very aggressive preventers make is increasing my susceptibility to chest infections.
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