Failed Spirometry Test :(

[tracydr]

I've never had asthma or any type of chronic illness in my life.

This is very odd. Given your lack of age and symptoms Id have to wonder about other diagnoses which could be more unusual and more difficult to diagnose than asthma or bronchitis. I'd highly recommend a pulmonology second opinion for you.
For you to have abnormal spirometry and xray, I would suspect repeat bouts of asthma symptoms, bronchitis or heavy smoking. Without, at age 19, I'd say something else could be the culprit.
Find out what it is, get to the bottom of it. It is impossible to say if you can dive because this doesn't sound like typical asthma at all.
Also, most FP doctors and their staff aren't all that great at giving/ interpreting spirometry. The tests that are given at the urgent care clinics I work at are so subpar as to be a waste of time, mostly because the Medical Assistants are completely untrained.

 

[scubadiver888]

Check out the location of the OP - Austraila. A medical is a requirement.

Hawkwood, I noticed the original poster's location was Australia. I was unaware that a medical is a requirement in Australia.

 

[scubadiver888]

RAZ lives in Oz.

DAN Asia-Pacific (DAN DOC)
DAN SEAP

Regards,

DocVikingo

You can find DAN Asia-Pacific from DAN website by going to Contact DAN and from DAN SEAP at the top of the list. Plus you can go from
DAN Asia-Pacific to DAN SEAP as well.

 

[Raz2097]

Thanks for your input guys. I really appreciate it. The doctor who I first went to see was a GP who does Dive Medicals. She was the first to say I have a mild restriction and that if I wanted to pursue the issue that I should go see a pulmonary specialist to get a proper chest exam etc. I also went and saw my dive instructor and he said that he has had a few people come to him with this same issue and once they have gone and seen the specialist everything is fine for them to dive. So at the moment that's what I'm clinging on to.

Raz

 

[TSandM]

What seems really odd to me is the use of the term "restrictive". Most bronchospastic conditions would be obstructive lung disease, not restrictive. Are you very overweight? That might show up as a mild restrictive deficit.

All in all, if you have abnormal pulmonary function testing AND an abnormal x-ray, I think I'd be very happy that your desire to dive caused you to get some testing that found a problem before it became symptomatic.

 

[Raz2097]

I'm not overweight. I weigh 80 kgs. I recently quit smoking. I'm guessing this is my own fault if smoking has something to do with it

 

[Akimbo]

I have heard dozens of stories about people in North America and Europe performing Spirometry tests that were clueless on how to work the machine — commercial divers get a lot of mandated diving physicals. There are not a lot of these tests done outside of pulmonologist's offices. There was a story at a recent freediving class where a person had to help the nurse figure out how to use it by reading the instructions with her.

I hope this is just another case of incorrect readings. If not, it may prove fortunate to find an underlying problem before it becomes chronic. While you are there, see if the pulmonologist can suggest some good respiratory exercises. They make a huge improvement in freediving which is a great self-confidence builder for Scuba. Best of luck.

 

[Raz2097]

If these issues that I'm having now are the results of my history of smoking could I then say to the specialist that because I do keep fit by running every day, go to the gym and do swimming on the weekends that things are only going to improve from here due to the fact that I have quit smoking?

Would that be a valid point?

Because I do not have any history of chronic illness so this must be caused by my history of smoking.

 

[Akimbo]

…Because I do not have any history of chronic illness so this must be caused by my history of smoking.

Smoking, genetics, pollutants, medications, allergies, normal deviations, any combination, or just a bad Spirometry test. Second opinions are almost always a good thing.

BTW, the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask. Ask the Doctor anything you want. The best part is no matter how dumb or embarrassing the question, patient confidentiality will keep it from appearing on the Internet!

 

[scubadiver888]

If these issues that I'm having now are the results of my history of smoking could I then say to the specialist that because I do keep fit by running every day, go to the gym and do swimming on the weekends that things are only going to improve from here due to the fact that I have quit smoking?

Would that be a valid point?

Because I do not have any history of chronic illness so this must be caused by my history of smoking.

If I required a medical and the form I gave my doctor asked if I AM qualified to dive and I was not qualified at that moment, she would tell me to come back when I think I'm doing better and she'd re-test me. Essentially, if I tell her I'm working on it and will improve I am really asking her to trust me. If I'm lying, it is her license on the line.