( I'm Canadian)
I finally got an appointment for the respirologist August 15th! My question is, what do they do on the first visit? It's been almost a year since my PFT do they retest?
If you have a good lung specialist, "yes," they will retest you. Its the only way they can determine what stag your lungs are at, and what they would then advise what your options are, or should be. God bless
On my first visit to the pulmonologist, I first met with the nurse who took my history and gave me a breathing test where you blow into a machine several times, then she gave me a breathing treatment with the nebulizer and I had to test again. After that I met the pulmonologist who listened to my breathing, looked at the results of the breathing tests and asked me some questions about how I felt when breathing and walking. He then prescribed a course of treatment, prescribed medications, and showed me how to use the inhalers and made my next appointment. I did not do the walking test on that visit. I was pretty sick on my first visit so he also prescribed prednisone and antibiotics.
They do retest every few months or so to gauge your progress...at least they retest at my doctor's office. I have also been sent to the hospital to be tested for pulmonary function twice in the past 2 years.
Lots of questions, what is your diagnosis! ?, and what symptoms do you have
I would assume they will, no biggie just have blow, blow,blow. Lol
Take care, stay strong, hugs!!
If this is a new doc, they may do a PFT or spirometry. If it's the same one you saw before, they may not. I only get one every three to five years unless something happens and we want to see if anything's changed. There's no reason to do one annually unless you're really unstable and things change frequently.
You may have some sort of test to determine if you qualify for supplementary O2. Depending on how sophisticated they are, you may have a blood stick for Alpha-1, blood tests for several other things and a review of your medications. If they're new, they'll want history and previous treatments.