Pranayama, or, "They Said Size Wouldn't Matter"

Morning weigh-in: 181.5#, 13.5% BF

 

Yes, I have the scale properly calibrated again, and once again will be regaling all my faithful readers with the weight stats -- for as long as I remember to do it...

 

So last Wednesday I had a followup appointment with  the pulmonologist, where I did another set of spirometer tests, and got another set of ambiguous results. They seem to think that my lung obstruction isn't so bad, ie my maximum breath flow rate is OK if not stellar, but the volume of air in my lungs (volume available for me to breathe out) seems to be reduced. Not by much, and not too far outside what's considered normal, but it's almost as if my lungs were small or something, which apparently is something they ruled out with the chest X-rays.

 

So back to the hospital on Friday morning, for another set of more advanced breathing tests, this time to look at lung volume. The test machine was the same as last time, sort of a giant, NASA-designed bong enclosed in a glass box, and I was set to breathing through a sort of scuba mask again, but this time the med tech closed off the box. Breathe normally, big breath in, all your air out, breathe normally again, then a set of rapid, shallow puffs, repeat. The machine produced a bunch of interesting graphs and a table of calculations, but they meant nothing to me and the med tech wasn't forthcoming -- they know what's their job, and what's the doctor's. All she said was that everything seemed normal, just... small.

 

Anyway, that was a pretty quick test, and I spent the rest of the morning doing stuff around the house until Anne got home; then we hit the Allentown Farmer's Market, and then met her brother Joe and his wife Laura, and Paul & Ann at the Velodrome. It looked almost like it was going to be rained out, but things cleared up just enough, after a rain delay, to dry the track out. We caught some of the Jr Nationals (a friend's daughters up on the podium) and the usual Friday night races.

 

Saturday we brewed another batch of "Fucking Intense," that super-hoppy, high-alcohol beer we made a few years ago. Long day of watching pots boil, but it should be worth it, and ready to drink in about two weeks.

 

Anne took yesterday off with her buds to do a bike tour of the Finger Lakes, and I sent the afternoon finishing 1Q84 (verdict: not great but OK, maybe I'll give it a "meh+") while the storm cells blew through, then when it looked like the coast was clear I did a towpath ride -- I got slammed by heavy rain with just five minutes left to the ride. Dinner was at Brew Works with John, also stag while Donna visits friends in Denmark.

 

Tonight I'm hitting the towpath again, then I'll have to do some shopping for things I know how to cook.