Question SOB for over a year without answers

agro said:

Talk to your doctor; you may need a Gastroscopy to determine if you have a Hiatal Hernia.

A hiatal hernia occurs when the upper part of your stomach bulges through the large muscle separating your abdomen and chest (diaphragm). Your diaphragm has a small opening (hiatus) through which your food tube (esophagus) passes before connecting to your stomach. In a hiatal hernia, the stomach pushes up through that opening and into your chest.

A small hiatal hernia usually doesn't cause problems. You may never know you have one unless your doctor discovers it when checking for another condition. But a large hiatal hernia can allow food and acid to back up into your esophagus, leading to heartburn. Self-care measures or medications can usually relieve these symptoms. A very large hiatal hernia might require surgery.

Symptoms
Most small hiatal hernias cause no signs or symptoms. But larger hiatal hernias can cause:

• Heartburn from gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD)
• Regurgitation of food or liquids into the mouth
• Backflow of stomach acid into the esophagus (acid reflux)
• Bloating
• Burping
• Difficulty swallowing
• Chest or abdominal pain
• Shortness of breath
• Vomiting of blood or passing of black stools, which may indicate gastrointestinal bleeding

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Anatoliy said:

Hi Christa,
Very sorry for your breathing troubles.
I am a freediver instructor and licensed acupuncturist.
Western medicine can help if there is a biochemical pathogenic factor still present in your lungs or airways. However, from your report I can't see a big probability of infection. With severity of your presentation the infection would be easy to find, and you would be treated with antibiotics already.
I agree with those talking about dysfunctionality. Quite often, due to traumatic event of any nature, body can enter a state of deep psycho-emotional distress. A person can look absolutely normal from outside, but inside there is a great deal of tension presence that negatively affects numerous physiological functions. In many ways it resembles PTSD or abuse (child/sexua/domestic) condition.
From my experience, breathing relaxation techniques is the most effective way to reset the body and let it heal from inside and stop limiting you from living life you want. If it makes sense to you at all, you can learn more by attending online video conference I am doing this week. You can sign up here https://www.schedulicity.com/scheduling/HAON7A/workshops
It is free, and I will be happy to give you more guidance in this direction.
Keep breathing, get well soon.
Anatoliy

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grarena said:

All good points. My questions are
1- what tests were run?
2- did you see a pulmonologist?
3- did they blow it off like “all in your head”
4- like already asked is it better at times and worse at times and when?
5- does eating make it worse? Lying flat worse? If you take a slow deep breath time it and see how long on the inhale?
6- do you have asthma? Taking something for that? What meds are you on?

Also for this being a year that’s a long time. Doubt pneumonia

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Nikolos Peyralans said:

Hi Christa,

As some others have asked, does it seem to get worse at times? Some others have posted that there may be a psychological component. I had something similar happen a while ago and when I went to the hospital, all the tests were fine. I realized that it got worse when I thought about it or if I started doing breath hold exercises, but if I was able to distract myself, then I wouldn't notice it. That seemed to indicate to me that there was a psychological aspect involved. Now it rarely ever happens. If a person is predisposed to anxiety then this might also be correlated to it. If your blood oxygen levels are okay (as mine were), then I would be inclined to think physiologically that you are okay.

Anyway, I hope it gets better for you. I had to stop doing all free diving and all breath hold exercises for a while just to get back to normal. I know this isnt really a good answer but hopefully if our situations were similar then it may help.

Thanks,

Niko

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L-aspetto said:

Hi, i am a medical student (not a doctor yet so do not take my words as definite).

I can think of three possible causes that you should discuss with your doctor prior to starting anything.

1) you have had a pneumonia secondary to aspiration (breathing in the salt water that you may have thrown up underwater), meaning you needed antibiotics, and maybe it never quite healed properly.

2) this episode has left you with chronic stomach reflux ( stuff inside your stomach is coming up your food pipe on its own; especially while you are lying down and sleeping, and going into your lungs). You may need to speak to you doctor and either do a barometric study or start some sort of anti acid or PPI (medication). You may want to test out raising the head of your bed by a few inches so that you sleep at an incline; this may help without needed a doctors opinion.

3) you may have done some damage to your sinus without knowing, and now you are producing mucus from your nose that causes “post-nasal drip” that drips down to your lungs and causes this constant irritation. Maybe you need to start some form of nasal steroid?

Im not sure obviously because i have no examined you myself and have not seen your test results; but these may help you discuss further with a doctor. In my opinion you need to review with a respiratory specialist and maybe consider doing something called a bronchoscopy and broncheoalveolar lavage to further investigate.

Goodluck, and get well soon. I hope this helps a little bit

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