Lung capacity

https://youtu.be/F9O63rjSpFo

Didn’t start to feel it until about 8½, but scored a 10 on my first try sitting down after having lunch.

Bit worried about the comments of those who didn’t even make it halfway, wow.

hummm according to the video test I have super lung (was easly able to hold breath till the end so 10 is my score too), but I am not that sure it’s true…

However enjoyed the test, thx! :)

Hopefully, folks that could not complete it, were just anxious or something like that.

I held easily to 5, and probably could to 10 without too much difficulty – but I don’t think my cardiologist would approve of me trying. She says, “Plenty of exercise is good, but DON’T overdo it. A long brisk walk or a short sprint is fine, but only a short sprint please.”

The thing is that the urge to take another breath is triggered by the reaction to a CO₂ buildup, so if your body efficiently puts out CO₂ into your lungs you feel the need to breathe again sooner.
If you mentally push to hold out longer, before taking a breath, you usually can.

That’s why the chaps, and chappesses, in Respiratory Function have fancy kit that not only measures the air intake/output volume, but also measures the relative gas levels.
It’s also why the array of stuff they clip on you in A&E (and elsewhere) routinely includes a pO₂ sensor – that O₂ in your blood is important

that O² in your blood is important

Yup. On advice from the cardiologist, I’ve got one of those pO² sensors. Here’s an example of why:

http://clive.semmens.org.uk/pics/PO2.jpg

That was before I got the pacemaker, which doesn’t allow my heart rate to go down below 45 – but which doesn’t know what’s happening to pO². Most of the time my pO² is fine (98 or 99) but sometimes goes silly. No pictures less than 90, but has been as low as 82 a couple of times. (That’s without holding my breath…I wouldn’t hold my breath when I’m feeling groggy, and I definitely feel groggy when pO² is way down.)

pO2 sensors

I have been using one for a few years now, and was advised if it dropped to 92 or lower for any length of time. You were in trouble. Most of time mine was between 95 and 100, but was getting increasing breathless. I had a pacemaker which was supposed to cut in if the heart rate dropped below 50, but it was not always doing so fast enough over the past few months. Investigation via blood tests discovered my heart failure was getting much more serious, originally I had ‘heart block’ where the two halves of the heart were not getting the electrical signals to pump blood, but now the signals had become so weak the existing pacemaker could no longer cope. So just before Christmas I was called in a for an urgent operation, and they give me a new very latest pacemaker (so new the manufacters consultant was advising my consultant on it in theatre) plus they proformed Cardiac Resynchronisation Therapy and now have three wires into the heart to keep me alive. It’s also remotely monitored wireless transmitted my heart data daily to the hospital. It was interesting watching most of the operation on the monitor while they do the work.

Lifetime guarantee?

I managed 10 on the test, but I was feeling anxious after about 6 or 7. Something tells me it’s not a serious test.

I’ve only got two wires into the heart, but mine is also remotely monitored with daily transmissions to the hospital.

I was so heavily sedated during the operation (20th September this year) that I don’t remember much about it. I don’t think there was a monitor for me to watch on, and I wouldn’t have wanted to watch anyway. Given that the very thought of the impending op gave me a vaso-vagal episode (somewhat short of a syncope – I know how to avoid actually fainting: lie on the floor and put the legs up on a chair…) they knew I needed heavy sedation.

pO² doesn’t usually go stupidly low for very long, fortunately – except during those vaso-vagals, which are HORRIBLE, and happily now short-lived (so far…) because they’re no longer a vicious spiral of slow pulse → low BP → slower pulse → lower BP, with the pacemaker kicking in as soon as I get down to 45bpm.

Most of time mine was between 95 and 100, but was getting increasing breathless.

I got one as Covid was starting to become a problem. It seems stuck at 99 so I’m not sure if that’s good or if it’s just not working correctly.

Hmm, I thought I did a blog article on it but it appears not. Anyway, it’s “yet another STM32 device”. ;-)

Something tells me it’s not a serious test.

Either that, or it really sucks to be a smoker.

gave me a vaso-vagal episode

I’ve had a couple of those, and there’s nothing wrong with my heart. I’m there in a lecture thinking “oh well, this is boring” and everything goes sort of grey and foggy and faraway and the next thing I know it’s several minutes later and I’m on the floor and everybody is staring at me. Oh joy.

The thing that freaks everybody out is that I don’t go floppy and plotz, I go rigid. When it happened during an eye test, the optician started talking about epilepsy, but I have no history of that whatsoever (nor parents).

I know how to avoid actually fainting

For me, avoid blood tests. :-)

As part of mom’s diagnostics, they took out over a dozen little tubes of blood. And it was me on the floor.
Mom’s response? “Yeah, he’s like that, leave him so he doesn’t see the rest”.

For the Covid vaccinations, the guy in the local chemist was great. I had mentioned to somebody at work how little I was looking forward to the thing. She mentioned it to her daughter who worked there, who told the owner that was doing the injections.
So I turn up clutching a teddy bear (one of the charity ones they sell) and he starts on about how I must read and follow the instructions on the sign on the wall. There wasn’t any sign. Well, there were, but nothing that seemed at all relevant. By the time I was totally confused, he leaned over and told me he’d done it.
Didn’t feel a thing.

Second time, he stood behind me and made a fuss about opening the packet and discovering the thing was damaged and he couldn’t get it to work. He sat down at his desk to rummage around for another, then he looked over and told me it was done.
Didn’t feel a thing that time either.

Mom thought that it might have been some sort of lingering memory of having a bloody great needle shoved into my spine as a baby. Suffice to say, I stay away from sharp pointy objects as much as possible. To the point where I once told a dentist that was having trouble deadening my mouth to just go ahead and do it. Yes, it was rather painful having a nerve pulled out when it was still active, but after nine or ten injections, I’d rather the pain than another needle. Especially given that he seemed incapable of keeping his hand still when it was in.

I’ve had a couple of those, and there’s nothing wrong with my heart.

Indeed. Having something wrong with one’s heart complicates matters, but is not a prerequite for vaso vagal episodes! Needles – in others as much as in me – are a trigger for me, too, as can be reading about or hearing someone talk about Medical Matters.

Interesting. It sounds like something I had years ago. I was sitting in a first aid course, facing a whiteboard on which were flickering reflections off the river behind. The instructor starting talking about something gory. Then I woke up on the floor, with people inquiring whether I had a history of epilepsy. (Not then or since.) I do however have migraines, and flickering lights are a trigger for me.

Here’s a strange thing. Was feeling a bit groggy just now…

http://clive.semmens.org.uk/pics/48-82.jpg

Two minutes later up to 57-88, and another two minutes, 54-99 and feeling normal.

Then I woke up on the floor, with people inquiring whether I had a history of epilepsy.

Similar, years ago, similar reactions from people, except where I was working just happened to be two doors down the corridor from the EEG Dept.
Shortly after, I was being examined and then given a suggestion of avoiding certain foods and flickering lights (which don’t give me problems beyond making me queasy, so best avoided after a meal)

I can just do that 1m18s even with my reduced lung capacity these days, but what gets me is the storeys of the actors in the new Avatar film holding their breath for underwater over 7m. Tom Cruise who has 6 years on me, can do 7m47s (I always thought you carked it at 4 minutes), but maybe that’s because he buzzed the tower in F14s and F/A18s, where as a I only flew C152s and C172s.

where as a I only flew C152s and C172s.

Don’t feel too second rate David: most people /never/ leave the ground under their own control!

‘Chocks Away’ :-) – are there any of the Flying progs working on the new machines?

I loved Chocks Away; for its day it was surprisingly realistic. I used to play it on my A410/1… I’d definitely get an updated copy if available for the Pi/RO5.

most people /never/ leave the ground under their own control!

Jumped off a shed roof when I was going. It was a hard lesson about gravity.
Does that count? I was airborne for a couple of seconds, if not exactly “flight”.

I loved Chocks Away; for its day it was surprisingly realistic.

Is it part of ADFFS, by any chance?

Yes, it was a good game. I used to have Interdictor, but that suffered from being a little too accurate – namely landing was very hard and it took ages before anything happened, by which time you got to watch a pretty (but small) explosion…your plane. :/

Jumped off a shed roof when I was going. It was a hard lesson about gravity.

Not that harsh:

1. Still breathing
2. Not in a wheelchair¹

I used to have Interdictor, but that suffered from being a little too accurate – namely landing was very hard and it took ages before anything happened, by which time you got to watch a pretty (but small) explosion…your plane. :/

Faster machines probably mean that if it can run on 32 bit kit, it is faster on the visuals, which theoretically gives you better feedback on the control and thus makes it easier.
Think helicopter on Mars and transmission delays. You just know where those NASA guys got half their training – video games.

¹ There was a guy I met a number of years ago, we (other workers at the GBBF) thought he was a bit of a tw** but gave him some leeway due to the wheelchair user aspect.
His friend, who had known him since schooldays, assured us that he had been “a total tw** well before missing the jump from one garage roof to the other while (attempting) escaping from the boys in blue”

Chocks Away, including the Extra Missions, can absolutely run on a Pi, with the magic of ADFFS.

JASPP do not have the rights to distribute 4D games, so you will have to source the game yourself (eBay etc.). But ADFFS will provide the environment to run it.

it is faster on the visuals

It’s not slow, was quite responsive on my A5000. It’s just… There’s a lot of nothing to fly over between anything of interest. Got a bit tedious.

StarFighter 3000 was much much better, things happening right away and an insanely detailed world updating with a speed that embarrasses everything else.

Think helicopter on Mars and transmission delays. You just know where those NASA guys got half their training – video games.

Sorry Steve, that’s not relevant at all. They have taught the helicopter how to fly. They just tell it where to.

Why? Well, you’re looking at a delay of about eight minutes between planets (depends on distance) so there’s no form of direct control that is possible or useful.

Not in a wheelchair

Thankfully I was a skinny child (to the point where “well meaning” adults would try stuffing food into me and looking upset when I spat it out), which meant that I spent a childhood falling off walls, out of trees, etc and never broke any bones.

As an adult, well, my affection for Mars has taken it’s toll. Plus I don’t feel as sprightly as I did twenty years ago. I no longer take a running jump over the ditches in the field, I walk around. This getting old thing, pain in the arse.

theoretically gives you better feedback on the control and thus makes it easier.

Unless, of course, it’s one of those things that uses a software loop “timer”, so on a modern machine, you’ve taken off, crossed the entire map, and crashed into something before you’ve even lifted your finger from the start key. ;)

Plus I don’t feel as sprightly as I did twenty years ago. I no longer take a running jump over the ditches in the field, I walk around.

With two young children any outing involving fields normally involves several running jumps over ditches to retrieve them from various (inevitably muddy) predicaments.

This getting old thing, pain in the arse.

How are you managing to get old, you youngster, at your age??

With two young children any outing involving fields normally involves several running jumps over ditches to retrieve them from various (inevitably muddy) predicaments.

That’s thirty-plus years ago for me. These days daughter and son-in-law can do the retrieval of grandson when necessary…although fortunately he seems to be careful enough not to need it often – without, fortunately, being over-cautious.

How are you managing to get old, you youngster, at your age??

One day at a time.

With two young children […] retrieval of grandson when necessary

I have a cat. That’s enough. Generally when she’s up a tree and mewing pathetically, I leave her and as soon as she’s bored she’ll find her own way down (and if I get her, it’s claws out, can’t win).

I did have to climb up on the piggery roof to get her. That was a different (I’m bricking it, human!) mew. She needed help getting down from that.

I have a cat. That’s enough. Generally when she’s up a tree and mewing pathetically,

Moet never did that, roosting in the top end of a 50 ft oak and reversing down later using the built-in climbing gloves was more his style.
I’m not sure what the squirrels thought of 5 kilos of long haired¹ ginger thing chasing them up a tree.

¹ half Persian, all daft.