Paralyzed Diaphragm

I'm still swimming can do a continuous 200 now without stopping. When I was first diagnosed I was like you barely do a 25. Haven't been to the pulmonologists in a couple years. He told me if I have any problems call and so far all is good. Hardly think about my diaphragm at all anymore. My rib cage has always stayed flat, can"t recall it ever doing what yours did. Have you taken any pulmonary function tests (PFT).

You might want to read about barrel chest. A few people in my facebook group for people with paralyzed diaphragms have mentioned their rib cages getting larger and protruding. I haven't experienced that, though.

I met with an ENT (ear, nose, throat) doctor this week to discuss two annoying issues I'm having that I attribute to my left paralyzed hemidiaphragm, namely a constantly runny nose and my voice becoming hoarse and fading out after three sentences. I had been taking a generic claritin to deal with my runny nose, but that didn't help much. He confirmed my thoughts that both were being caused by my left paralyzed hemidiaphragm. He said people who breathe properly automatically sniff periodically throughout the day and swallow nasal secretions. That doesn't happen with people who don't breathe properly and nasal secretions drip out their noses. He said claritin was designed to help people with allergies, not this, and prescribed a nasal spray medication designed to address this particular issue. Re my voice, he explained a strong consistent breath and air flow (which I don't have) are necessary to maintain a strong consistent voice. I'm having a test later this week where a speech therapist in his practice will put a camera down my throat and look at my vocal chords to see if she can pinpoint the problem and design a program to help me. I have been going to a speech therapist who had me doing diaphragmatic breathing exercises and other breathing exercises. The most helpful thing she suggested was consciously taking a breath at the start of every sentence. I'll be glad to see if the new speech therapist can find a specific problem and develop a program to deal with that.

My pulmonologist said the same thing. She told me there was nothing that could be done. I would just have to use supplemental oxygen if I wanted to do much (visit my sister at a higher elevation, for example), and probably end up on it permanently, degrading over time.

I started digging into medical research and found there is a lot of evidence diaphragm plication is generally quite successful - on average, improving lung function by 20%. And the risk and recovery time is pretty low with the newer minimally invasive surgical techniques. (And the facebook group was full of people who had good results, too.) So, at age 69, I decided to do it.

Had the surgery at Mayo Clinic Phoenix a few weeks ago. Woke up and took my first deep breath in more than a decade. Dr D'Cunha was my surgeon and he was great!

I am recovering from lung surgery and my diaphragm was frozen after surgery. Can I ask why you had your surgery at the Mayo Clinic instead of a closer city or were you close anyway.

I live in the Phoenix area. But I was ready and willing to travel rather than have surgery done by someone who isn't highly skilled. There is a Facebook Paralyzed Diaphragm support group (private group - you can easily find it, but only members can see the posts - you can request to join). On that group there are many people who have had the plication surgery - most robotic. And the strong agreement is to find a surgeon who has done many of these surgeries, is highly skilled, and has an excellent track record. There are a limited number of hospitals/medical centers around the country I would have considered. The thoracic surgeons even at most larger hospitals in Phoenix would not meet the criteria, so I would have hunted for one at one of the top tier centers for robotic plication surgery.

My surgery went even better than I hoped. Pain was minimal due to advanced techniques used by my surgeon. Definitely was much better outcome than most.

Hi. Is anyone here in the Phoenix area who could recommend a pulmonologist who is up to speed on paralyzed diaphragm? I have a pulmonologist who is great for typical lung conditions (COPD, Asthma, etc.), but not aware nor very attuned to paralyzed diaphragm and how to manage lung health for someone who has it. This isn't unusual, it seems. So I'm hoping to find someone through the chats with other people who have paralyzed diaphragm.

Is there anyway you may refer your physician?

I too have an elevated right diaphragm. I had C-Spine surgery back in January of 23. Had some discs removed and my C-Spine fused. I have numbness on the right side of my face that nobody can figure out that started 6 months after surgery. This past summer I began to have difficulty breathing. My Pulmonologist ran tests and said my diaphragm is elevated and has paralysis on my right side and more then likely the nerves are dead at the bottom of my right lung. I am on 2 liters of oxygen now since just walking my oxygen saturation percentage drops below 87%. I’m going to get a second opinion but I’m looking for suggestions

Second opinions are good. You may want to request a SNIFF test if one hasn’t been done.