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Mysterious shortness of breath: What has helped you?
Lung Health | Last Active: Oct 23 10:20am | Replies (3405)Comment receiving replies
Hi Gabe! I am so glad I stumbled upon your article. You are the first person to describe exactly what I have been battling with for about 3 years. I have the constant feeling of needing to take a deep breath and about 90% of the time , it is not satisfying. Mine started out as an occasional dyspnea and gradually got worse. Now I feel this shortness of breath all day everyday , with very minimal periods of relief. I have tried breathing exercises and they do not help at all. But maybe I need to try for longer stretches. I started running a few days per week about 2 years ago and it is torture to run, but I try to do it because it makes me feel healthy afterwards. It doesn’t get any easier though . Which after sometime, it should . I have the normal levels of anxiety that comes with being a parent of two and working full time .. and sometimes I wonder if this could be anxiety related because everything else is Normal but I do not have any other symptoms of anxiety what so ever and usually anxiety is situational- doesn’t last all day everyday. I would do anything for an answer and solution to this problem! It’s gotten so bad that it’s starting to affect my daily life . Thank you for sharing your story.
Replies to "Hi Gabe! I am so glad I stumbled upon your article. You are the first person..."
My SOB came on out of nowhere. I tested positive for Covid 6 days later. All of the symptoms went away in two weeks but the sob stayed. I'm on month 16 now. I have some very good days, almost feel cured. Then it comes back in a wave of bad days. I have had all lung and heart tests come out normal. I was referred to a pulmonolgist but they didn't even examine me. Just said the x rays and the ct scan were found. Nothing further they could do. I've tried red light therapy, acupuncture, exercise, vagus nerve exercise, breathing exercise (4-7-8, Winn Hof, Buteyko, diaphragm. I've had massages, I walk a large dog daily. It's recovery/relapse over and over. Every single of the 4 general prac. doctors have said it's anxiety. I don't have sweaty palms, don't feel nervous, nothing. They have all tried to put me on anti-anxiety meds. I've seen a naturopath. $$$ worth of supplements. Sometimes I've taken an antihistamine which has worked off and on. I've had an endoscopy, nothing. Finally I relented and my doc put me on Prozac 10 mg. Nothing. Then 20, 30 and now 40 mgs. I don't know if it's working because according to notations on my calendar, I have the same amount of bad days and good days since this all started. I recently started working with a respiratory physiologist. She is helping me to retrain my breathing to tummy only. I also am to try to suppress any yawn or sigh by swallowing or sipping water. It's so hard sometimes. I have a machine to train my diaphragm to get stronger. I get worse with minimal exertion and have to lie down and slow down. I am giving it a 100% try. The prozac may be tapered off. When I started 30 mgs I felt it was (maybe) helping but that didn't last. I want to be referred to another pulmonoligist to see if there are any other tests. I want to make sure I don't have a pulmonary embolism
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@amyann722 I’m so sorry you’ve been dealing with this. How long did you try the breathing exercises for and what types of exercises did you do?
I used to run pretty hard too, especially when this started for me but then had to stop running for a while and now I just do light jogging or walking. I also do moderate weight lifting as my main form of exercise which I think also helps with the breathing.
Have you seen any doctors about this?