Thank you both for the replies. Thankfully i've felt some improvement over the last week and and very thankful for that.
@podenco that is very interesting information. Sorry to hear you've dealt with that. It does seem plausible in my case as well since i have a lot of back pains from working in bad positions and from surfing. The pain is in the upper back, in the spine and right where the rhomboids are as well. So i'll definitely investigate it further and try to go to a physical therapist or chiropractor. Can you tell me what exactly was the treatment they did on you to improve it?
@musubi yeah it's definitely a tricky one, with no clear diagnosis. I haven't tried to hold my breath for fear it would worsen my symptoms. I have noticed that when i talk a lot, the shortness of breath worsens. So i do suspect there's something physical going on as well as the anxiety. It's interesting as well that when i drink coffee or dairy first thing in the morning, it also worsens, so more evidence for the esophagitis.
Thanks again for your input, will keep taking it easy here to try to maintain the improvements ive felt in the last week. Cheers
Hello Cabursn, no problem, thanks god I recovered, having a problem that after more than a year doesn´t go away and even worsens, and not obtaining a solution from the healthcare system is very frustrating, the body is a complex machine and everything is connected, and unfortunately doctors can not always find the cause of a problem, specially with things as muscular issues, anyway when there is a problem with a lung or other vital organ that causes symptoms I think that they find the problem easily. If you tell me thath you have this kind of pains in your upper back there is a big chance that this is the cause of the issue, in my case, apart from the chronic pain, the thing that bothered me the most was the breathing problems, it was like breathing with a corset, and very often I had the sensation of having asthma (I had some asthma in my childhood), but when the doctor listened to me he said that lungs were cleared, no asthma, so is interesting how the diaphragm and other muscles when they get tight and not move properly can mimic asthma symptoms.
Regarding to the treatment, first of all doctors performed many tests (blood tests, electrocardiogram, x-rays, an mri scan of my back) and the only finding was a bit of osteoarthritis in my middle back, something normal for my age (34) they said. A year later I made an effort test, and also I had a mri of my chest, everything fine. During all these time I also visited, several physios they found that my diaphragm was tight, and performed some diaphragm massages and back massages, but no improvement, even some of them said that I had anxiety. I visited two accupunturist too, and same results. Other doctors said that I had costochondritis, and because of that I bought the backpod, a physio from New Zealand invented this device for treating this problem, but for me was useless and made thinks worse. One doctor specialized in sport medicine told me that I had chronic pain, and that I would live with that forever, her only solution was taking clonazepam, this drug helped me with the pain because relaxes the muscles, but after some time taking it losses eficacy, and also helps to sleep, and also is very addictive and difficult to stop taking it. So I don´t recommend to solve a pain problem with this kind of drugs, first of all because they don´t solve anything, I took it daily for a year.
Regarding to the quiropractor, when she saw me she inmediately gave me a diagnose, as I told you in my previous message, the treatment consisted in freeing up the dorsal spine, with spine manipulations, sometimes right after having a manipulation a could breath better, and after three months of sessions (two sessions per week at the begging, and later is one per week) I improved a lot, but I arrived to one point that I had no improvement, and sometimes after a manipulation I felt worse. But a least I could ride a bit my bike without feeling terrible after that, and breathing a bit better, also a physio of the hospital saw me and found this knots in my rhomboid, and said that this was the origing of everything, he massaged me the area and also used the needles to release the muscle knots (they punture the knot and the muscle frees up), i found the needle treatment very effective, so after a month with him I improved even more, and I could do more exercise, with discomfort, and not breathing perfect but I could exercise, and after more months I got well and no problems with sport, and now I can sit down and write again in my computer without being in pain, so I am very happy!
So I recommed you to go to a good physio or a quiropractor, if they are good they can find muscle knots and see how they spine moves, and also can see how tight is your diaphragm, most doctors can not see all of that. But my best advice is not to stop moving and exercising, one you stop for fear of the pain or to get worse, the muscles can get even tighter, and also don´t do dry apneas if they hurt you, in my opinion I think that is the most unnatural exercise to do, the apnea underwater is natural and makes you feel good and relax, holding your breath on land, at least in my case was uncomfortable and also hurted me.
Good look, and I´m sure that you will be perfect soon!
