Today’s tests were for pulmonary function and salivary glands. You try your best not to spit for the pulmonary and spit as much as possible with the salivary – all in a day’s work!
The pulmonary function test has you put a foamy pincher on your nose while breathing in and out in a large tube as hard as you can to the high-pitched voice of an over zealous cheerleader until you’re blue in the face or you pass out. All you hear is “take a deep breath then breathe out, breathe out, keep breathing out, just a little longer” – good god there’s no more air in my lungs, only spittle, give it up already! Then comes “ok, take a deep breath, breathe in, breathe in, hold it, keep holding it” – by now I’m dizzy and nauseous and just want to breathe normally. The first test was done pre-BMT as a baseline and this one, done at 100 days, determines whether or not your lungs were affected by chemo and meds. If they aren’t, then I’m sure the test itself will make you feel inadequate.
Ok, the next test was the salivary gland test. As much as spitting was frowned upon in the first test this morning, this one, on the contrary, was meant to measure my spit. For 5 minutes I had to spit in a cup. Then, I had to chew on sugar-less, flavour-less, texture-less gum (unless you count rubber as a flavour) for another 5 minutes and spit in a cup while chewing gum. This test was weird. They needed to measure the amount of saliva produced at rest and while stimulated by chewing. Again, this is a test to determine whether or not chemo and meds have affected your glands. One of the signs of GVHD is dry-mouth. Well, I passed with flying colours as I tend to go in the opposite direction and over-produce saliva (caused by one of my meds).
Ok, that’s it for now, next test Thursday. I need to go rest as I’m still sore from yesterday’s bone marrow biopsy.
Marie-Chantal
