One Winter Saw My Lung Function Plummet in Freefall

Day 20: 2009, The Year of the Swine Flu

I started 2009 with a lung function between 80% and 75% — lung function values work on an average expected capacity for your height and age. The values are one of many tools respiratory doctors use.
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During winter, I dropped to a lung function of 30%, and by the end of the year, I managed to raise it to 45%. You don’t need to be good at math to realize these numbers aren’t great.

Image Credit: Danielle Price

Despite having had the flu vaccination, I contracted the flu three separate times that winter. One on top of the other, with no break in between. They gave my lungs a beating. Swine Flu was rampant, but each swap returned a negative result for the Swine Flu, showing that I’d contracted Influenza A instead.
Which is lucky because, based on those numbers, contracting the Swine Flu may have killed me.

There were no answers.
I spent nearly the entire winter on IV antibiotics. I ended up spending two weeks as an inpatient so that the team could do additional testing. Nothing conclusive came of these tests. My CAT scan showed significant inflammation in my lungs without extra scarring. Scarring would indicate the damage to my lungs was permanent. With that good news, my team and I chalked it up as a bad winter that I should be able to recover with time and effort.

By November, my lung function was at 45%, and we took a family trip to Malaysia. I found it more challenging to cope with the air quality this time, but I still enjoyed the holiday.

This is the holiday that Grant and I remember as the one that Jarryn bitched and moaned the whole way through. Apparently, it was hot, there was strange food, and he had to walk everywhere (truly tragic stuff!) Jarryn, however, recalls this trip ‘fondly’.

Next in the 31 Days of Cystic Fibrosis series - There's No Point Having a Bucket List if You Don't Tick Things Off

Given the way my lung function had suddenly dropped the previous year, Grant decided it was time to make a trip to Egypt a reality instead of an item on a wish list.

31 Days of Cystic Fibrosis is an awareness-raising campaign to coincide with
the national Cystic Fibrosis (CF) awareness month in Australia.
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​If you’ve just joined the journey and want to start at the beginning, you’ll find the first post here: Your Daughter Has Cystic Fibrosis