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Mysterious shortness of breath: What has helped you?

Lung Health | Last Active: Oct 23 10:20am | Replies (3405)

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@tatianar

Hi, I am astounded to have come across this discussion. I TOO have been having this same exact issue!!! I can't even begin to describe my despair. As so many of these posts have mentioned, I know many can relate. This issue kind of started about a year and a half ago with more mild symptoms, which I already have asthma so I attributed it to my asthma getting worse. But then about 7 months ago it got 10× worse almost over night! I mean just awful. There is this heaviness in my chest, and it almost feels like there is literally something blocking my upper airways. I've been to 2 primary care doctors, 2 pulmonologists, a cardiologist, an ENT and at least 10 ER visits. I've had full blood work up and allergy panel, which showed I do have quite a few allergies. Started getting treated for that and no improvement. I've had 2 lung function tests six months apart, which were both normal. X-ray and chest CTA, normal. Larynscopy to check for for vocal cord dysfunction, normal. I have a bronchoscopy scheduled for July 10th, which my doctor said more than likely it will come back normal since all my other tests were normal, but he will do the procedure anyways just to give me peace of mind. He said there is like a less than 1% chance that maybe he would find a mucus plug but thats it. If that yields no answers then I am at a loss for what to do next. I am DEVESTATED that I cannot find a cause. It is a daily struggle that sometimes I am just feeling so depressed that ill have to live like this for the rest of my life. I feel like I can't get enough air in, like there is something blocking the air flow, and I literally hyperventilate every single day, because I'm so starved for air that I take waaayyy too many deep breathes to compensate. Also when I lay down for a while, there is like this crackling and gurgling sounds deep in the back of my lungs, that completely dissappears when I get up.. I'm taking a steroid inhaler and an Albuterol inhaler, and their both useless. Interestingly though, there was one 1 time where I got some relief which lasted for 4 days. I had just tried yet another inhaler, called Tudorza. Tudorza is an anticholinergic, which effects your mucus production. It gave me terrible chest pain so I stopped after just one day. For the next couple days after that I felt like my mucus was thick, so I took mucinex. All of a sudden the next morning I could actually breath normally!!! It was a miracle and I thought I was cured, only for symptoms to slowly return and be back completely after 4 days. Since then I have tried to recreate that instance with the Tudorza and the mucinex, and it hasn't worked again. Its so odd, I can't explain why that happened. I've tried sooo many herbs and supplements. I'm so desperate to figure this out. Hoping the bronchoscopy gives some answers despite my doctors doubts that it will. There has to be a reason this is happening!!!

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Replies to "Hi, I am astounded to have come across this discussion. I TOO have been having this..."

Hi @tatianar. Terribly sorry that you're experiencing this, but I think that finding this forum and seeing all the other people who are experiencing similar issues hopefully will give you hope and a sense of community that you're not alone. Back before posting the original post, I thought I might be the only person experiencing this. There are many!

If you haven't already, dig through the comments (it will take time, there are a lot!). I think you will find many potential treatments and things that will at least help you manage this until you find an answer. We're all still searching and when we find one, I know it will be shared in this thread for the benefit of many.