Hi Gabe,

I came across your posting after looking up undiagnosed causes of dyspnea. I have been struggling with this since the beginning of June so this has been going on for about 7 months now. I guess I’m just going to be vulnerable and tell my story because I don’t know what else to do.

I first noticed that in the beginning of June as I was about to enjoy my summer off from work, I was experiencing a hard time breathing while walking fast on the treadmill. I felt like something was off and even though I had not been exercising as often, I was a healthy weight and had never experienced anything like that in the past. It felt like I was having a hard time taking a satisfying deep breath but I experienced no issues after that. Then a couple weeks or so went by and I went paddle boarding. I pushed it pretty hard and was feeling good. I was in the best shape I had been in for years. After paddle boarding, I rested on the couch and took a nap. Four hours passed as I was watching a movie and out of nowhere I felt like I had a really hard time breathing. I felt like I needed to continuously take deep breaths that weren’t allowing me to take a full breath. I noticed my chest felt like it hurt, was tight, and hurt to press on (hard to explain). I went through a couple of weeks of this before I went to the ER because then I was feeling dizzy/lightheaded all the time. It progressed to the point where I was feeling it 24/7 and had to take Benadryl to go to sleep. When I went to the ER they did a chest x ray, EKG, checked my oxygen level with the pulse oximeter and everything came up normal. The blood work came back showing I had low potassium so they gave me it through IV and after a few days I noticed my breathing was getting better but then it returned to the same level as when I went to the ER initially. They told me to load up on potassium initially foods/drinks and take it easy. They said it would take some time for the breathing to get back to normal. After several weeks i did lab work showing my potassium was back to normal. I must disclose that I have a history of bulimia and ulcerative colitis which the ulcerative colitis was not bothering me much and the bulimia was not consistent and frequent. Since the breathing issues the bulimia has not been active. My primary care dr suspected a hiatal hernia and referee me to a gi dr. Then I became pregnant so the gi dr wouldn’t do an endoscopy. I then was referred to a pulmonologist who did two lung functioning tests which ruled out asthma, Diaphragmatic issues, and said my lung tests showed up better than average. During this time sadly I had a miscarriage but was able to be scoped at that point. After my endoscopy, it was determined that there was some inflammation in the stomach, no esophageal erosion, and a mild hiatal hernia. Both the pulmonologist and GI Dr. said that a mild hernia would not cause breathing problems all the time and that I should rule out heart related issues. My cholesterol is high but has improved but I’m only 38 so they aren’t worried its heart related. As I’m pregnant again now (first trimester) the pulmonologist has told me he can’t do any more tests and doesn’t think it’s lung related. I am now on a heart monitor and the echo didn’t show anything abnormal. The cardiologist, pulmonologist, and GI Dr. said if it’s not heart reacted, it’s muscular skeletal or psychosomatic. My primary care Dr. doesn’t think it’s muscular skeletal or psychosomatic. I’ve been going to therapy about this because it has really changed my life significantly. My therapist also agrees my anxiety is not significant but it has made me more anxious dealing with all of this with no answers and being pregnant now. I am normally pretty active and I’ve gained more weight and am worried that the pregnancy is going to make my breathing worse. I feel like because I disclose my history of bulimia people box me into the category of being a psych patient and that this is all in my head. I know what anxiety feels like and I know something else is going on. It is 24/7 with some days being worse than others. I can’t seem to find any connections other than that exercise, when my heart rate increases when something good/bad happens or after a meal it can make it worse. It can feel bad when I am just sitting relaxing or lying down too. It’s so hard to describe but I feel like if I am even able to take a deep breath, it feels like a dull pain, restricted, and strained. It makes no sense to me. I have been taking a break from work because of this as well. I am a mental health professional myself and am very aware of how anxiety manifests. They have also ruled out valley fever and have concluded this is not related to covid. If anyone has any words of advice/support and suggestions, I am all ears. For those that are going through this as well with no answers, hopefully we can support each other if nothing else.