{"id":2117,"date":"2010-05-10T18:50:09","date_gmt":"2010-05-10T17:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/?p=2117"},"modified":"2010-05-10T22:25:00","modified_gmt":"2010-05-10T21:25:00","slug":"specialist-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/2010\/05\/10\/specialist-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"Specialist visit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

An unexpected outcome indeed.<\/em><\/p>\n

Today I dutifully went to the ear – nose – throat specialist my main doctor had referred me to. (Yes, in Norway they really are called “ear – nose – throat” specialists. \u00c2\u00a0I don’t know what the corresponding specialists are called in English. You tell me.)<\/p>\n

First we talked a bit about the symptoms, when they started, and what situations they arise. Then, after a couple minutes, the doctor jumps to the conclusion. \u00c2\u00a0He has observed me speaking, and I am doing it wrong. \u00c2\u00a0I speak too much on the last part of the breath; I don’t bring enough air through my vocal cords for the amount of sound I wish to make, so I have to use more effort in my throat to actually create the necessary sound. The problem is either that I have bad habits, or my lungs are not working as they should. Just to be sure, he looks quickly in my ear, nose and throat. \u00c2\u00a0My vocal cords are a bit red, but there are no irregularities. \u00c2\u00a0This is not his problem.<\/p>\n

But as it happens, the neighboring office has a lung specialist, and she is willing to see me right away. \u00c2\u00a0She writes a list of numbers on my arm with a ballpoint pen, adds a drop of liquid near each number, and pricks a small hole in my skin inside the drop. \u00c2\u00a0Then she conducts an interview about my family history of allergies and asthma, which from the outset is her main suspect. \u00c2\u00a0(Even though at this time she is not aware of my childhood asthma.) I also have to blow through some measuring tube that records my lung function. \u00c2\u00a0She is not impressed. \u00c2\u00a0I have to do this 3 times, while she tries to get me to just keep blowing. \u00c2\u00a0But I already blow my lungs so empty I am afraid of not being able to breathe again.<\/p>\n

My lungs function on 78% of the capacity expected by my age, gender, height and weight. This is not good. \u00c2\u00a0(Really? \u00c2\u00a0Almost 80% is not good? \u00c2\u00a0There must be pretty low expectations then. \u00c2\u00a0Most people make a good living with less than 78% of my brainpower, so you’d think I’d be able to earn my bread with 78% of their lung power, especially in an office job.)<\/p>\n

The interview has pretty much concluded it already, but then the allergy tests all turn out negative. \u00c2\u00a0I have no problem with any of the normal Norwegian pollen, dust mites, dogs or cats. \u00c2\u00a0(I also seem to be more or less immune to needle pricks, as at first I was not sure whether she had actually pierced the skin. \u00c2\u00a0My lack of reaction caused her to cut deeper in the final drops, something I can see now hours later. But still no allergy.)<\/p>\n

What I have is exercise asthma. \u00c2\u00a0(It seems to be called “exercise induced asthma” in English, if Google is not misleading me.) \u00c2\u00a0It is evidently quite common, especially in people who had childhood asthma and grew out of it, like I did. \u00c2\u00a0The unusual thing is that it is in such a “pure” form, without an obvious allergy component.<\/p>\n

I already knew that I had exercise asthma, but since I am not doing sports, it has not bothered me. \u00c2\u00a0I don’t need to have an athletic body since I am not doing manual labor or, more likely in this age, soliciting sexual intercourse. \u00c2\u00a0My weight is already ideal (or was, before it started going down again.) \u00c2\u00a0It never occurred to me that I would need to be near the optimal lung function for my age in order to answer telephones<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But never despair, Big Pharma is here to help you! \u00c2\u00a0The lung specialist (shouldn’t that be “bronchies – lung – diaphragm” to fit the pattern?) was disturbingly quick to write prescription for two types of inhaled medication, one to take in case of symptoms, and one to take anyway, morning and evening. They both contain some kind of powder to inhale. \u00c2\u00a0That cannot possibly be a good thing, inhaling powder. \u00c2\u00a0Who came up with that in the first place?<\/p>\n

The thing is, I did inhale one of those things after the first blow test, and after a while I did a second test, which showed no change. \u00c2\u00a0And she still wanted – insisted, really – to prescribe both of them. \u00c2\u00a0I felt as if I was sitting in front of not a doctor but a salesperson from Big Pharma. \u00c2\u00a0The one I should take every day anyway (for the rest of my working career, I suppose) was a brand new product which could not possibly have side effects. \u00c2\u00a0Isn’t that what they always say, until users die like flies and someone finally manages to launch an investigation that shows that they knew this from the start but it paid so well, they are still in the black even after losing in court? \u00c2\u00a0That said, when Vioxx (the pain med) was withdrawn, I wished I had stocked up on it. \u00c2\u00a0Of course, I don’t need that kind of low-level pain meds anymore now that I use meditation and brainwave entrainment. \u00c2\u00a0For some reason, though, meditation has not improved my lung function. \u00c2\u00a0Something must be done about that.<\/p>\n

But what to do? \u00c2\u00a0The obvious answer is to exercise more. \u00c2\u00a0It should be possible to get closer to the trigger level (and thus breathe more deeply) without actually going far enough to trigger an attack. \u00c2\u00a0This should improve lung capacity. \u00c2\u00a0Perhaps I’ll do that starting tomorrow…<\/p>\n

No, seriously, I did start exercising today (then again I do that every day after work, just a little) and found that my pulse was once again around 20 beats higher than normal. \u00c2\u00a0Perhaps I am running an infection in the background, in which case the test today may not be accurate, at least if it is a respiratory infection. \u00c2\u00a0Or perhaps this is a reaction to the powder I inhaled, or the extreme exhalation tests. \u00c2\u00a0They really felt like an asthma attack at the very end there, when I had no air and could not breathe out more, and they did cause me to start coughing. \u00c2\u00a0I kept coughing up mucus for a while after I returned to the city. \u00c2\u00a0Whether that is good or bad, I cannot say, but I felt pretty much like I do in the hours after a light asthma attack. \u00c2\u00a0(I have had severe attacks in my childhood. \u00c2\u00a0The ones I have had from training have not been that bad, but then again I stopped immediately when I recognized them.)<\/p>\n

I suppose my immune system may even have been mobilized from multiple breaks of the skin. Although they just look like small red dots, it is not something I experience every day. \u00c2\u00a0If I were in charge of the immune system, I would probably ramp it up too after a day like today! So I exercised less strenuously than I had planned, and only for about 40 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I visited the throat specialist today. The result was not too horrible, but it was not what I had expected at all. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-slice-of-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2117"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2121,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2117\/revisions\/2121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chaosnode.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}