Respiratory Disorders :: Difficulty Breathing
I have had a terrible affliction for more than 3 months now and it is greatly affecting my life. I am 25 years old and in general have never had a
problem with my health or anything. I have lived in São Paulo, Brazil for 6 years which has very polluted air due to its large population and high altitude.
I am having difficulty breathing in general. It feels like I am not processing the air that I breathe. Here I am going to list all of the symptoms I am feeling:
-Exercise is walking at best. If I try to do anything more than this I become at risk for feeling irregular heart palpitations and become even more out of breath.
-There are moments when I feel a little better and worse throughout the day. It is completely random but I think it might also have to do with eating. The only time I feel ok is when I am sleeping and I just wake up. Usually I lie around for a bit because it's nice to forget about it. As soon as I get up the difficulty breathing starts. If I get up just to use the bathroom at night it takes a while to stabilize after I lie back down.
-I have a chest pain on my left side. is right in the left pectoralis major. This pain never goes away however it is constant so I have coped with it. The
pain is like the pain you have when you have gas. It is a sharp pain I cannot move the muscles on my left chest otherwise it will feel like I'm being stabbed.
-It is common for me to be sitting doing nothing and feel strange heart palpitations which cause me to have even more difficulty breathing
-When I feel the palpitations (which have been occurring less but the chest pain hasn't subsided) It seems that my heart is in my throat or that I am going to burp up my heart. When This happens I have to lie completely still and focus on not passing out. My limbs, stomach face all go numb and start tingling like when your leg falls asleep and it's waking up.I usually sleep on my right side because sleeping on my left side causes difficulty breathing.
-I can't stand in one place for very long otherwise I will have considerable difficulty breathing and start to slouch, however I can get by walking.
-Sitting up straight makes it harder to breath. Slouching has helped me to get by and breath more easily.
-Riding in any vehicle causes me to have considerable difficulty breathing. It feels like the bumps on the road cause me to not be able to breathe well.
-Anxiety does cause my symptoms to worsen and my breathing to become considerably harder but it is not the underlying cause. I cannot run away from the chest pain or difficulty breathing no matter how calm or relaxed I am.
I have done a few heart and lung exams:
*3 ECG/EKG- nothing
*3 chest X-rays- nothing
*1 chest tomography- nothing
*1 Echocardiogram- nothing
*1 24 hour holter- nothing( I wasn't even able to
sleep within the 24 hours at any moment because I had to hold my cat who had surgery and took the whole night to recover from the anesthesia. Worst night of my life both of us suffering and nothing I could do. I left my cat with my wife when she woke up and went straight to the lab to remove the holter device.)
*Spirometry- nothing
*Laryngoscopy- Septal deviation(I've always had)
Rhinitis, pharyngitis and laryngitis
-the only day in the past 4 months that I have felt normal is the night of and day after I did the spirometry and laryngoscopy exams. I took anesthesia
in both nostrils for the laryngoscopy and 2 sprays of an inhaler for the spirometry exam. I started doing some exercises on the following morning and all
the symptoms returned.
-I am beginning to have dizzy spells. I suddenly get overtaken by strong dizziness.
When I was between the ages of 10 and 16 I had taken all sorts of antipsychotic medicine such as Geodon, Abilify, Seroquel and others because I was considered overactive. I am do worry that this might have affected my anatomy at a growing phase in my life. I have suspected heart arrhythmia or asthma but the tests I listed above say otherwise.
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I had a Barium swallow done to see if the goiter I have is causing my swallowing issues. My ENT told me today during our follow up visit that the Dr. who did the x ray noted that I have "linear opacity of the right mid thorax and he suggested a get a chest PA and lateral xray. My ENT then sent me to get a xray. I will not know the results until Thursday of this week. What does this all mean. I have had a cough for 3 1/2 weeks, random sharp chest pain on the right side and wheezing when I lay down only. I have my lungs listened to 2 times and I hear "your lungs sound good"...
View 1 RepliesRespiratory Disorders :: Shortness Of Breath For 7 Weeks
I am a 55 year old woman who was healthy as a horse until earlier this year when I had to have my gallbladder removed. I have never had asthma, allergies, breathing issues or heart issues. Two and a half weeks after surgery I woke up one morning feeling I wasn't getting 100% oxygen into my lungs. I had an anxiety attack the next afternoon as a result (never ever had an anxiety attack in my life before) and ended up at ER. Tests performed including cat scan and nothing was found. Have seen a pulmonologist - have gone through the breathing tests when sitting as well as on the treadmill at various speeds - all is normal. Arterial blood work - normal, echocardiogram - normal, no holes in heart, no clogged arteries. When I lie down at night I still have a bit of shortness of breath but at same time the breathing is more relaxed and I can sleep. As soon as I get up in the morning again, the shortness of breath picks up again. The breathing level remains consistent, does not get worse on exertion. For a period of time I was getting the tightness in the rib area at times but that hasn't occurred in 5 days now. I found it odd that when I saw the specialist a couple of weeks ago he asked me if I had any idea as to what I thought was going on. Later he told me I didn't give him much to go on (because of my test results). I am going back to his office next week for follow up. I think he wants to explore the possibility of asthma to rule that out but I get the impression he doesn't feel I have asthma. It's a mystery. Has anyone had this issue and it then got resolved?
View 1 RepliesRespiratory Disorders :: Medication To Remove Lung Scar
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I have been having abdominal and pelvic pain for months since my daughter was born in May. I went to the er at 2 different hospitals and both did a CT scan and 1 found bilateral lower lobe atelectasis and the other a narrowing of my aorta valve of the celiac. I asked my family physician about the atelectasis but he said it was air pockets but nothing to worry about. I had a collapsed lung 3 years ago so are these things I should be concerned about because he is not.
View 1 RepliesRespiratory Disorders :: Crackling Sound And Level 9 Pain When I Breath
I am 43 for several days I have been having serious pain the right side of my chest when I breathe on a scale of 1 to 10 it is definitely a good 9....when I lay on my back there is a crackling sound and lots of pain when I breathe..if I laugh or hiccup awful...coughing is excruciating...and I been having migraines only on the opposite side of my head(left side) don't know if they are connected but I never get migraines I've had about four in last two weeks
View 1 RepliesRespiratory Disorders :: Shortness Of Breath, Light Headed, Breath Stuck In Stomach
I am debating if I should go to the Emergency Room, as it's a Sunday. My story - 26 year old male, healthy. Since age 10, I have had an intermittent feeling of my breath being stuck in my upper abdomen (solar plexus area) and a little in my chest but not much. Sometimes when going for a deep breath, I feel pain in the chest, but very rare. It almost feels like there is a wall in between my stomach and my lungs that prevents air coming out. I know it's weird because you breath out of your lungs not your stomach. The only way it comes out is when I finally catch my breath, which means I need to wait for it to be able to escape and then I finally get the deep breath I need. Also yawning often allows the breath to occur. When this is happening, I can still breath but it's like only 10% of my lungs fill up with air, like someone is standing on the other 90% of my lungs, preventing them from filling up.
My BASELINE/ usual status is having the breath being stuck symptom maybe 10 times a day, usually while eating. This has become normal for me and I don't even think about it until people who I am eating with say, "what is wrong with you?"
When it is GOOD, it happens even less, maybe once a day and I will barely realize it happened.
When it is BAD, it happens often, maybe 20 times an hour.
The last week it has been EXTREME to the point where I will be struggling for a full breath once a minute. It is so bad that I have been feeling light headed (main reason for the alarm here). I have class on weekends and I was walking to the train for class, and my body was telling me to stay home (i am the type of person who doesn't make a big deal out of anything and never skips stuff).
Background- I sleep very well, usually 7-8 hours a night, am very healthy, 6 feet tall, 180 pounds, run 6 miles 3 times a week (it happens the same when I run but it doesn't prevent me from running), played sports my whole life, doctors always tell me my blood work and everything is off the charts good. The reasons I just listed, combined with my Mom (nurse) always telling me I am fine have made me stop seeking cures for this. I had every test under the sun done when I was 15 (EKG, Barium Swallow, Blood work, etc) and everything came back clear. I have a concave chest (my chest caves in) and the doctor told me that my chest bone is interfering with my breathing (eyes rolling). But now that I am feeling light headed, I think it's time to go to the emergency room. I am going to go to a heart center in my town (Brooklyn, NY). Also, I LOVE doing research about stuff and have been reading about this a lot and tons of people have similar symptoms which has comforted me. But now it's time for me to get tested again I think. Maybe this just talked me into going to the ER.
Pulmonary Fibrosis :: It Seems Little Is Known About IPF
My partner was diagnosed with IPF in June 2015 when he had terrible breathlessness, horrendous coughing and had lost a stone in weight. For the previous 9 months he was told he had Bronchiectasis. He is now 74 and was always a very fit man working as a part time gardener and going to the gym weight training and running until April 2015 when the breathlessness stopped him. He was referred for a CT scan and an appointment with a consultant. 5 weeks later he had the scan and 6 weeks later saw the consultant. By this time he struggled to walk farther than 20 yards. The consultant arranged for various tests to be done and said he would see him in 6 weeks. He would not give him any medication.Once the tests were done my partner was feeling very ill so I requested an earlier appointment with the consultant, he then required further tests based on the reults of the first ones and would see him in 6 weeks.Time is now marching on and he is quite ill and then he was told to go into hospital overnight as they thought he had a collapsed lung, which he didn't and he was then referred to a specialist and the appointment was 6 weeks later. At this appointment he was put on home oxygen and pirfenidone. 2 months later he had an appointment with the consultant who then said he would see him in 3 months.He has now lost 3 stone in weight, has no appetite and says food tastes like cardboard.We have not been given any support or contact for when things get worse. The pirfenidone does not appear to have made any difference and he is now on oxygen 24/7 and struggles to walk to the cloakroom - about 18 feet. Nobody told us anything about the disease, what to expect etc. At Pulmonary rehab he learned home exercises which was good and I mentioned to the nurse that nobody had explained the disease to us and she gave me a booklet from the BLF to read, something we could have found on the internet.
Last Sept/Oct my partners brother was told he probably had IPF and we told him to keep pushing for appointments in order to get Pirfenidone and not hang about for 6 months like we had to. In January he was referred to a specialist and in early March he was assessed for oxygen. This morning sadly he passed away without seeing the specialist and still not having oxygen.
Why does everything take so long. If you are diagnosed with lung cancer you are usually being treated within about 6 weeks not 6 months.
My partner insisted on being referred for a lung transplant as he saw a story on the BLF site of a man of 71 with IPF, always been very fit and healthy was given lungs and is still going strong.When we went to the specialist hospital it was all negative, too old and no tests were done and they even denied that the op on the 71 year old was carried out in their hospital. When we got home I emailed the story to them but they did not reply.
Everyone should have a chance of life.
Blood Pressure :: Pulmonary Hypertension
Two years ago I was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension. My pressure was at 38. I lived in pure worry for 6 months and went back again and it was 32. I still live in fear and my doctors acted like it was not a huge deal but want to see my every 6 months. They did an echo and EKG. I don't go back again until March but for the last week my right lung feels like its being squeezed and then I can't get any air. I'm so scared but I also have bad anxiety and panic. I just feel like k can't get any air in my right lung. When I lay down it somewhat goes away. I'm 31 and somewhat overweight. I have a lot of stress because my mom just passed away. I also have two kids and am scared I'm gonna die all the time. Just wondering if anyone else has this or is it my anxiety. I read online about how bad pulmonary hypertension and am in constant worry
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To be honest i know very little about the condition, my doctors aren't that helpful so I wondered if anyone could give me any tips on things that help improve/manage the condition or things to avoid?
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I have been diagnosed with IBS-d and diverticular disease. I'm confident with the diagnosis as I've had all the tests. But IBS-d is managed by FODMAP diet, yet this cuts out so many sources of fibre that the flare ups are most likely the diverticulitis...massive bloating, cramping and diarrhoea.
Any thoughts or successful tips on how I might be able to better manage both?
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Would any of you have any suggestions about how you manage mouth sores?
Complete Loss Of Hearing After Respiratory Tract Infection
I'm 36-year old male and about 3-weeks ago I went to my doctor with typical flu-like symptoms. He informed me I had a Respiratory Tract Infection and prescribed some antibiotics and pain killers which I took over the course of the following week. The problem did not clear-up and, after developing a chesty cough and severe pain in one ear, I returned to the doctor who then told me the infection had most likely spread to my chest and most certainly into my ears - particularly my left one. He prescribed stronger antibiotics and pain killers and a nasal steroid spray, all of which again I took religiously over the following week once again.
Although my cough and general flu symptoms have pretty much cleared up, for the past week or so I have been left with almost complete loss of hearing in my left ear. It feels as if there's still a wee bit of pressure both in and around the ear itself with a sort of numbness when i touch the skin on my face and head around the ear. This extends in to my hairline, over my left cheek and a short distance down my neck below my ear. There's also a small amount of ringing from within the ear and it sounds as if I'm hearing things "internally" all the time. Hard to explain but extremely frustrating and my concern is that the infection has somehow managed to damage my hearing permanently.
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I'm desperate for an answer. Vascular consult was neg. any clues?
I was originally told this could be a spinal compression issue. I do have a hx of lower back pain/spasms.