How are your lungs?

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.

After passing your mid-twens chances get pretty low it'll happen again.

The pains - I got and had to get used to them. Sometimes it feels like my lungs have been torn to bits, on other days it's just fine.
But I do think they are partly phantom (doc suggested that too), though, as I had a strong fear over all those years it'll happen again.
So then I felt quite happy to pick up many reassuring words from my doc last year that it is very unlikely it will happen again - especially after bringing them up to that capacity. The pain was also most likely due to that they had to grow and move around for moar space.

It's possible, and very rewarding if you stick to it and carry on.

heh, fucking right, never do I want to go to be poked at my lungs in hospital again too.

Yeah, Doc said a lot of the pain i get is nerves healing from where they made their various incisions and left scars that look like shoddy aluminium welds.

Ha, this all happened in my late twenties and the doc reckons I've possibly had another since. TBH, I'm not too bothered, I just tend to get on with it and if something doesn't feel quite right just pop into hospital. Thankfully my new doc's a cyclist and is understanding, and has just given me x ray forms already filled out, so I can just pop in and get checked out straight away if and when I need to.

But yes, lung poking is definitely not the way ahead.

Please explain in lay-birds terms what "bilateral breathing" means.

And how much swimming? Couple of times a week?

using both lungs.

@cake - are you very tall by any chance? The procedure you had to stick your lung to your chest wall was a talc pleurodesis. It's very effective even though the theory behind it is pretty basic stuff.

Asthma can mean many things nowadays. Excercise-induced asthma is a real thing and is likely what the OP has. The cries of 'you're just not conditioned to ride up hills' are a bit off. A trip to the doctor will likely result in you being given a peak flow meter and a chart to fill out. You might also be given a blue (reliever) inhaler. If the blue inhaler makes you feel much better during these episodes, that's enough to diagnose asthma according to the British Thoracic Society.

In short: it's probably exercise-induced asthma; you don't have to put up with it; see your doctor about it.

Here's a humerous pictogram of a gentleman enjoying a peak flow meter a little too much:

Not particularly tall. I know the score though. Tall, athletic, mid-late twenties. I remember them saying this as they punched holes in my chest, and my mum who'd just turned up laughing and saying I wouldn't do it like that... (ex nurse). TBH though, in my case, they said was a combination of shit luck, shit genes and being good enough at smoking to develop mild emphysema before my twenties are out.

Yeah, the talc pleurodesis was equally fun, they did that at the same time they chopped some bits of the top of the lung. Thankfully though I was asleep for this, and on a lot of Morphine for the following few days.

Breathing on both sides during front crawl, e.g. every 3 strokes - you're exercising much more control over your breathing / slowing it down.

Since doing swimming lessons when I was like 10, I've done this, but recently I like to try to push it by doing 5 or, if I can, 7 strokes in between breaths. I honestly think this has had an impact on my lung capacity. I have no science to back me up, but I just feel like I can breathe deeper and easier than I used to.

sounds like quite an ordeal cake! It really makes me cringe seeing people smoking when you really know the damage it can cause. I spent the whole of last summer in a hospital (not as a patient but sleeping over many nights) you get to learn how lucky you are to have functioning organs and just how fucked things can get.

Also being involved in training of myself and others, it is quite infuriating to see people wasting their excellent genetics while other people (like myself!) have to work so hard to even get the abilities of a sedentary 70 year old.

I was in a house fire when I was a toddler which damaged my lungs bad enough that you can still see a lot of scarring today on an x-ray. In addition I have moderate asthma but severe rhinitis. Really makes keeping up with even totally sedentary people swimming/running/riding really hard. Even though do heaps of exercise/training.

I was given a exhaled nitric oxide test and had lung volume measured. Apparently my lung capacity is only 80% of what it should be (at rest), and this doesn't take into accounts inefficiencies caused by the scarring and the fact less air gets in due to rhinitis and asthma related inflammation.

The rhinitis also means I have either a blocked or extremely runny nose permanently. Which leads to recurring frequent sinus infections which usually lead into bad colds/flu.

I also realise that my "condition" is nothing compared to many, and I should not be such a whining pussy about it.

Breathing on both sides during front crawl, e.g. every 3 strokes - you're exercising much more control over your breathing / slowing it down.

Bilateral breathing also keeps your stroke technique symmetrical. If you can't manage 3 strokes between breaths do unilateral breathing and change the side you breathe on every length, to help prevent injury and keep trying to build up to bilateral lengths

I also realise that my "condition" is nothing compared to many, and I should not be such a whining pussy about it.

Sounds pretty harsh to me! I'd be whining way loads more. Lord, puts my hill climbing/lung whining into perspective.

You too Cake!

Going by the sound of us TNRCers last night at the top of each hill; all our lungs are rubbish

indeed - like something out of Solzhenytsin (sp?) with your smoker's cough, Ludwig threatening to bring up his tea, my asthmatic bark and a few others besides

Hillclimbing is fun everyone!

Everything seemed fine to me.

sounds like quite an ordeal cake! It really makes me cringe seeing people smoking when you really know the damage it can cause. I spent the whole of last summer in a hospital (not as a patient but sleeping over many nights) you get to learn how lucky you are to have functioning organs and just how fucked things can get.

Also being involved in training of myself and others, it is quite infuriating to see people wasting their excellent genetics while other people (like myself!) have to work so hard to even get the abilities of a sedentary 70 year old.

I was in a house fire when I was a toddler which damaged my lungs bad enough that you can still see a lot of scarring today on an x-ray. In addition I have moderate asthma but severe rhinitis. Really makes keeping up with even totally sedentary people swimming/running/riding really hard. Even though do heaps of exercise/training.

I was given a exhaled nitric oxide test and had lung volume measured. Apparently my lung capacity is only 80% of what it should be (at rest), and this doesn't take into accounts inefficiencies caused by the scarring and the fact less air gets in due to rhinitis and asthma related inflammation.

The rhinitis also means I have either a blocked or extremely runny nose permanently. Which leads to recurring frequent sinus infections which usually lead into bad colds/flu.

I also realise that my "condition" is nothing compared to many, and I should not be such a whining pussy about it.

I had something similar when young and had my sinuses bored out (was in overnight and was out the next day). pretty grim operation and about as much fun as it sounds, but cleared my sinuses loads and have been less prone to colds/ chest infections since getting it done (mid-teens).

Holy fuck. "bored out" grim indeed. Glad it worked for you though. I recently discovered things like ephedrine work extremely well for my respiratory issues. But dont know how wise it is to use it regularly.

Holy fuck. "bored out" grim indeed. Glad it worked for you though. I recently discovered things like ephedrine work extremely well for my respiratory issues. But dont know how wise it is to use it regularly.

Yeah woke up covered in blood with a 6 inch tampon up each nostril. Great days!

My lungs feel a lot better since stopping smoking about 10 months ago. However, for the first 9 months after stopping I'd wake up with a smoker's cough almost every frigging morning. The irony being that during almost 20 years of having smoked I didn't ever develop a smoker's cough, until stopping. While doing some research the internets told me this was normal as apparently it's the cilia growing back.

the cilla growing black.

.

.

research the internets told me this was normal as apparently it's the cilia growing back.

Surprise surprise, who knew ?

I gave up smoking 7 years ago after chuffing away for 14 years...now I am cycling I always think of the "what if" scenario....I suppose carrying extra timber doesn't help. Although I live in flat Essex so no real climbs....

What if you'd never smoked? I dont think it wouldve made much of a difference. You feel the biggest benefit immediately as cigarettes fill your blood with carbon monoxide which stops it getting properly oxygenated. If you stop smoking this gets better straight away.

Your sponges are weak

If you've smoked, you're never going to have the same lung function as if you had not smoked.

Giving up smoking certainly delivers real, measurable, and immediate benefit, but there will always be lasting and permanent damage. How much damage depends on how much was smoked.

The lungs are like sponges - Smoking turns them into coarser sponges.

I had a go at Swains Lane for the first time yesterday and immediately developed some sort of mucousy cough. I gave up smoking about two years ago but I'm wondering if there's still shit in the bottom of my lungs as that is probably the most extreme workout they've had since...