I have been short of breath lately and am always focusing on my breathing which really makes breathing annoying. I am a former smoker of about 15 yrs (1/2 pack a day). I did a PFT and here are the results -
The flow loop line graph seemed to look normal with the exception that it did not go right down in s straight line from the peak.
The computer diagnosed mild obstructive airways disease and I guess my pulmonologist agreed because he told me that I have mild asthma. He gave me advair and said it should help. So far it hasn't. If most of my numbers are over 100% isn't that supposed to be good? I also had "no significant response to bronchodialators" - but isn't asthma supposed to respond to bronchodialators? I am concerned about what appears to be hyperinflation in the TLC and am not sure what my Dr. sees is mild asthma. Anyway he didn't explain the test results to me but did give me a copy of the results and now I'm doing my homework. Any opinions are appreciated.
When I read your post, I felt that your concern about the Advair not working were quite valid, especially if bronchodilators are not working, either. I've suffered from asthma, allergies, exercise-induced asthma, took 4 years of allergy shots and now have mild COPD, as well. My symptoms are definitely helped by the things that are not helping you. Unless you have allergies, too, if those medications aren't relieving symptoms, I, too, would continue to search to make sure that you truly do have asthma. There are so many other things that can cause shortness of breath. So, I completely get where you're coming from~~~and being short of breath is way scary, so don't give up, but keep searching to see if you have some other disorder that makes you short of air.
Thanks for your response. I quit smoking about 2 months ago and have been reading online a lot online about coughing and SOB after quitting smoking. I don't know if this is the cause but I suppose it is possible.
Do you know what FEF25% (not FEF25-75) stands for? I was told online by a Dr. that it was the last 25% of exhalation and was related to the small airways. Isn't that incorrect?! Isn't it the first 25% of exhalation in the PFT test and related to the larger airways? I am confused.
GR84U - Forgot to ask if you have had a PFT recently and how your results were? What if anything indicated mild COPD? It's good that some of the remedies have helped you.
Thanks for writing....no, haven't had to have PFTs in a while. Here's the scary truth: I was born with allergies/asthma (childhood was a trip with no inhalers--another story entirely), and after my allergy shots (stopped them at 17), I stopped having exercise-induced asthma, too....we never knew if the shots just *worked* or if I outgrew childhood asthma.... THEN, here's the scary/stupid part, I started smoking cigarettes at 17 (did I say stupid?) and only quit 2 years ago (smoked 30 years) FINALLY after 7 separate attempts had failed. THAT's when I was diagnosed with COPD. It's mild in that I only use my bronchodilator as a rescue inhaler....TMI, I know, probably sorry you asked!!!
