What, exactly, are functioning lungs?

[azurelunatic]

Today I had to explain to the oncologist of the week that actually, I don't have all that coherent a reference point for "my lungs are great".

One of the stories of my childhood was how I wouldn't stop coughing until my dad took me outside and the cold air managed to calm my lungs down.

I had undiagnosed asthma, allergies, and deviated septum throughout my youth. I started getting the allergies treated in my 20s, the asthma treated in my late 30s, and the deviated septum was only treated not quite two years ago.

Since then, my lungs have been pretty great!

I'm pretty confident that based on the description of how the immunotherapy is known to Annoy lungs, I could probably spot it, especially because it tends to cause coughing. But, uh. Mild shortness of breath? Hardly even registers.

(Today was blood tests, oncologist, and then immunotherapy infusion. I see them-all again in another 6 weeks. This is a much more comfortable pace than chemotherapy, and the chemotherapy was unpleasant to boot.)


[Edit: we'd started immunotherapy at the same time as chemotherapy, and it's been going every 6 weeks since chemo ended; this was just a new discussion since I've been occasionally dizzy.]

Comments

[senmut]

Friend started singulair today (they know the potential downsides) and was like "is this how people BREATHE".

Thing is, they use CPAP, but had uncontrolled histamine issues that none of her providers ever thought to ... work on?

[princessofgeeks]

Wishing you all the best as you navigate this.

[jenett]

I feel you so much on 'what even are functioning lungs?'

(Mine it's bacterial pneumonia when I was 11 left some scarring, allergies, asthma, and they just like complaining about everything. I sound like I have TB on a regular basis - I don't. The CPAP at night helps a lot, but I still have this cough.)

[sine_nomine]

Wishing you all good things as you move into this new process!

[redbird]

May the treatment go as smoothly as possible.

On a smaller scale, my doctor was asking diagnostic questions last week (telemedicine), and Adrian and I had to say that I have this chronic lung problem (bronchiectasis), for which the prescribed treatment involves making sure I cough enough to clear the gunk from my lungs, so the presence or absence of a mild cough is not diagnostic.

[silveradept]

I suspect the oncologist will have several more categories where the assumption that a baseline or a "what's healthy" exists shattered before the treatments finish.

[vass]

This.

[jesse_the_k]

Glad to hear you're breathing!