How are your lungs?

I was once in hospital for a treat of a ruptured lung (pneumothorax, if anyone asks) and still have this lovely memory where the docs came to me and poked a huge looooooooong needle in to my chest to suck out the air that had escaped from the lung...
When I left, I was told my lung capacity was around 95% and that I've got to pick a sport to prevent it from happening again. That's the point where I begun cycling.
Last year, eleven years later, I had my lungs examined and it turns out me crazy fast cycling brought the capacity way up to 120%.
The pain involved to get there couldn't have been worse though, as said section sticks much harder to the chest and is what stings and hurts every time I hit the road.

Spontaneous pneumothoraxes suck balls. I've had two of them, followed by an operation a year ago to remove a section off the top of my lung, as well as 'sticking' my lung to my chest wall to supposedly prevent this from happening again.

My lung capacity isn't great, and I still get pain, but my fitness is slowly improving. I hope.

Reassuring to know that your lung capacity can increase.

Going into hospital again for anything lung related is not something I want to repeat. ever again.