The x-ray technician would have commented on it, so that's a piece of the puzzle. When I lived in southern MN, I was really fortunate to get all my medical care at Mayo Clinic. I'm in PA now but read through my records from 25 years ago on the Mayo Clinic portal. All of the x-ray reports indicated a raised left diaphragm...which is how I know I've had this for a long time. I asked my wonderful Mayo PCP why no one had followed up on this, and she said they didn't if a patient wasn't experiencing symptoms. There is another wonderful discussion thread on Mayo Connect I used to follow on Mysterious Shortness of Breath if you're looking for other thoughts. I would bet, however, you are absolutely right thinking this has something to do with your cancer surgery. I'm not surprised your cancer surgeon doesn't want you to pursue the precise cause and absolves him/herself of any responsibility. In my opinion, you really need to know what is causing your current symptoms and what you can do about that, rather than focus on the specific triggering event. That was about as clear as mud, sorry. My paralyzed diaphragm could have been caused by a motorcycle accident, falling down a flight of stairs, flipping over 3 times in a light pickup, malaria, rabies treatment, several operations, numerous vaccinations for working and traveling in East and West Africa, various viruses, etc. It doesn't really matter to me what caused it. It is what it is, I've ruled out surgery at my advanced age, I'm coping pretty well, and I'm concerned about dealing with the symptoms as they arise. I hope that makes sense. Anyway, if you think your diaphragm is damaged and causing your problems, you can find out one way or the other by having the SNIFF test and have a neurologist test your phrenic nerve. If your diaphragm isn't the problem, you'll have to keep looking. I don't know what a rheumatologist does but will look it up. I have a pulmonologist, cardiologist, gastroenterologist and wonderful PCP on my medical team....along with a Traditional Chinese Medicine healer who does acupuncture and chiropractor, who does not use manual manipulations. I'm pretty happy with them but do miss the Mayo Clinic!

PS Wow -- what a rheumatologist does is pretty cool. I've gotten really interested in inflammation, particularly inflammation resulting from leaky gut, being the cause of most chronic diseases. A few people in my facebook group attribute their paralyzed diaphragm to Parsonage Turner Syndrome. I think PTS may have something to do with the body attacking itself and the resulting inflammation irritates the phrenic nerve, which in turn weakens and/or paralyzes the diaphragm. I haven't really paid much attention to it; but what is interesting is that in at least 3 instances where PTS was the culprit the phrenic nerves healed themselves over time and the diaphragms started working again.