Sniff test

Today a radiology nurse came to me and said: "I have two patients waiting for you, to undergo the sniff test."
The sniff test?? What is that? And is that my job to do that? I have never heard of it. But I am willing to learn it.

So there I went, to the fluoro room. With instructions from an experienced nurse practitioner.
Both patients listened very well to the instructions I gave them.

What the sniff test meant? Breathe normally, take a few deep sighs, and finally sniff. (Pretend to sniff some coke, as another resident said. I did not say that to the patient! I showed them what I wanted them to do.)  And all this, while fluorospotting (x-raying all the time) to see how the diaphragm was moving.

When in the beginning I thought it was a very difficult thing to do; at the end, after two patients, it felt so easy, and I was very proud I did these examinations myself.

And now I'm writing this down, I realize they were my first unsupervised examinations.