Peak Expiratory Flow Rate
I’ve done a number of tests in the gym and for work medicals over the last four years and one of the things they measure is “PEFR”. This is Peak Expiratory Flow Rate. Basically you put a tube in your mouth and you blow out as hard as you can. This moves a pointer, you read the number and it tells you what PEFR. I have no idea what it means really but I have got a feeling I am going to learn about it.
Results so far:
13 June 2004: 630 l/min (gym)
4 October 2005: 569 l/min (medical)
13 October 2005: 630 l/min (gym)
28 March 2008: 606 l/min (medical)
So whatever PEFR is, my number was around 600 or so. The results say that this is “normal”.
I went to the emergency doctor today because I was in quite a lot of pain and she measured my PEFR at 450 l/min. That’s 25% less than what it used to be. Oh dear.
So it turns out I might have asthma. Or I might have a lung infection. Or both. So I’ve been given some antibiotics and an inhaler.
I’ve been looking around the web (always a dangerous thing to do) and think that if it is not a lung infection then I may have seasonal asthma. Or I might not. Who knows?
The coughing has been going on for at least three, maybe four, weeks now but the pain has only been bad in the days before Windsor (two weeks ago) and this week. It might account for my relatively poor performance on the bike at Windsor (or it might not!) and it definitely has contributed to my lack of exercise recently.