I met with the thoracic surgeon and his PA separately yesterday regarding plication surgery for a paralyzed left diaphragm. The surgeon said a paralyzed diaphragm wasn't life threatening, people can live with it, and the decision to have surgery was symptom-driven. I gained a clearer understanding of how my floating paralyzed left diaphragm was actually hampering my breathing, which I hadn't understood before. That being said, I want to see if breathing exercises and losing weight will help before undergoing surgery. I moved from SE MN, where I received outstanding medical care at Mayo for 20 years, to western PA to be nearer family. Finding excellent medical care and whole support systems when you move to a new place is difficult, to say the least; but I think this surgeon really knows what he's doing. He's head of thoracic surgery at one of the two major medical centers in Pittsburgh and specializes in minimally invasive lung surgery using robots. If the breathing exercises and losing weight don't help, I'll probably go ahead with surgery in the spring. He makes his decision on how to do the surgery, ie through the stomach or side, in the operating room based on how clearly he can see inside my chest cavity to operate the robots doing the sewing for the plications across my diaphragm. Does anyone have any information if breathing exercises overcome the negative impacts a floating diaphragm has on breathing? Thanks! This is really a tremendous resource. Nancy