Hi Everyone!

I started experiencing "air hunger" / "excess yawning" / hyperventilation at the end of November, 2019. I'm so glad to have found this thread. It helps to see some of the other paths you've all tried, and where you have or haven't had success. I thought I'd add my experience to the discussion.

I have always thought this started initially for me from stress/anxiety, because I had a very stressful week and seemed to literally be hyperventilating. The problem with the stress/anxiety as the whole picture / underlying cause, is that, since that first incident, the correlation between my mental state and my breathing issues is tenuous at best.

I would describe my situation like this: it starts with air hunger, just the feeling that I'm not filling my lungs as much as I need to, or getting enough air with each breath. Eventually, I start yawning, and then can't stop yawning or arching my back to try to get the air I feel I need. On the worst days, this starts morning or afternoon, and seems to gradually get worse until I finally go to sleep at night. On better days, it doesn't start until I literally lie down to sleep. I go for weeks or sometimes months with none of this at all. I play tennis, singles, and I can play an entire match without issue. Sure, my pulse goes way up, and I'm tired at the end, but most of the time I don't even think about my breathing more than once during the match. Activities where I bend a lot (gardening, house cleaning) sometimes trigger it. So can conversations where I'm talking a lot. I occasionally have chest pain, almost always on the left side, and sometimes I cannot sleep on my left side at all. I occasionally experience the pain in my left shoulder someone else mentioned (from yawning so much). I am occasionally tach-y, and have a fairly high resting heart rate to start with (runs in my family). Lately I've also noticed more chest-pounding when I first lie down at night, or change positions lying down. I occasionally feel dizzy upon standing, but have never fainted.

These are some of the things I've considered and some of the actions I've taken.

I got tested for asthma. Not only do I not have asthma, but tests indicated my lungs performed slightly better when exposed to the asthma-inducing stuff. Chest xray, nothing. Saw a pulmonologist. He dismissed the entire thing. I had a D-Dimer done on a day I was symptomatic (family history of emboli, maternal grandfather died at 62 of PE, and now with all the Covid-->clotting ...). That was negative.

I saw a gastroenterologist. He does not think it's GERD for me, but he did give me an Rx to rule it out (I haven't taken this, because I am hesitant to introduce new drugs). He was going to do an upper endoscopy to rule anything out there, but I have not gotten that scheduled yet (insurance, blah).

I know what pleurisy feels like (experienced this a lot from bleach exposure in my teens and twenties), and I know it's not that.

Correlations I've noticed: menstruation. This has become pretty clear. I've done some research, and it seems low progesterone / dropping progesterone can negatively affect breathing possibly for multiple reasons. I'd like to talk to my doctor about this further.

Cold air: As this has been going on for three years now, I've noticed that when the air turns colder (and/or dryer), that seems to make symptoms worse. What concerns me about this is that I read somewhere that if cold air causes dyspnea, it could indicate underlying cardiac problems. I have not been to a cardiologist or had any heart-related tests done.

Dust/Allergies: Do seem to be a possible trigger. I've even wondered whether there is something in our house causing issues. I no longer take Zyrtec because I read that long-term use could cause chest pain (which I was experiencing). I do feel that I often have low-level drainage. I suspect dairy. I have not tried to eliminate it.

POTS or related: I did a blood pressure test to check for this, and that was fine. Nonetheless, as I mentioned, I often become lightheaded when bending over and/or changing position frequently. I seem to have weird issues changing positions lying down.

Long Covid: Covid is causing so many post-acute-infection issues at the vascular level and to all organs. The only infection I know for sure I had was in January, 2022, but with all the exposure we've all had, even taking precautions (I still wear an N-95 mask), I wonder.

Anyway, thanks for starting this thread, and I will report back if I ever feel I get more definitive information about my own situation. I wish you all the best, too.