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Paralyzed Diaphragm
My name is John and I was diagnosed this past January with a paralyzed right diaphragm. Phrenic nerve damage has been ruled out because of the amount of time between my heart valve surgery and when this started. I still cannot figure how this happened, I have a couple of ideas but nothing conclusive. I have seen two pulmonary doctors and both say there is a surgical procedure that can be done but no guarantee that it will work. I would like to know if anyone out there has been diagnosed with a paralyzed diaphragm and if they had it fixed.
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I'm still swimming can do a continuous 200 now without stopping. When I was first diagnosed I was like you barely do a 25. Haven't been to the pulmonologists in a couple years. He told me if I have any problems call and so far all is good. Hardly think about my diaphragm at all anymore. My rib cage has always stayed flat, can"t recall it ever doing what yours did. Have you taken any pulmonary function tests (PFT).
You might want to read about barrel chest. A few people in my facebook group for people with paralyzed diaphragms have mentioned their rib cages getting larger and protruding. I haven't experienced that, though.
I met with an ENT (ear, nose, throat) doctor this week to discuss two annoying issues I'm having that I attribute to my left paralyzed hemidiaphragm, namely a constantly runny nose and my voice becoming hoarse and fading out after three sentences. I had been taking a generic claritin to deal with my runny nose, but that didn't help much. He confirmed my thoughts that both were being caused by my left paralyzed hemidiaphragm. He said people who breathe properly automatically sniff periodically throughout the day and swallow nasal secretions. That doesn't happen with people who don't breathe properly and nasal secretions drip out their noses. He said claritin was designed to help people with allergies, not this, and prescribed a nasal spray medication designed to address this particular issue. Re my voice, he explained a strong consistent breath and air flow (which I don't have) are necessary to maintain a strong consistent voice. I'm having a test later this week where a speech therapist in his practice will put a camera down my throat and look at my vocal chords to see if she can pinpoint the problem and design a program to help me. I have been going to a speech therapist who had me doing diaphragmatic breathing exercises and other breathing exercises. The most helpful thing she suggested was consciously taking a breath at the start of every sentence. I'll be glad to see if the new speech therapist can find a specific problem and develop a program to deal with that.