• Welcome to the DeeperBlue.com Forums, the largest online community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing. To gain full access to the DeeperBlue.com Forums you must register for a free account. As a registered member you will be able to:

    • Join over 44,280+ fellow diving enthusiasts from around the world on this forum
    • Participate in and browse from over 516,210+ posts.
    • Communicate privately with other divers from around the world.
    • Post your own photos or view from 7,441+ user submitted images.
    • All this and much more...

    You can gain access to all this absolutely free when you register for an account, so sign up today!

Question SOB for over a year without answers

Thread Status: Hello , There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
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

HI AGRO,
Thank you heaps for this, I am having a gastrophosy soon and have taken a note of this condition, very helpful thank you so much!
Christa
 
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


Hi Anatoily,
I have booked in online, I haven't done a video conference before so not sure how it works, is there a number to call, Skype or something?
I'll wait for more info,
Thanks
Christa !
 
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


Hi Grarena,
Thank you, and yes its been a long time and never has changed. Somedays seem worse than others, I don't notice when it is worse or not. When I am sitting still, on laptop, driving etc then I notice it more. I haven't seen a pulmonogist so I have written that down to look into that. I have had X-ray, CT scan, bloods, asthma tests. I am getting a camera down my throat soon so that will show something hopefully. I am lucky I have along list and I just keep ticking down as I go. I will be keen to share when I discover what the problem was as I would hate anyone to have to go through this lengthy process as i have.
 
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

Thats very helpful, thank you... it could be some mental condition which I have no idea what, but its a possibility that I need to also look into, thank you
 
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 :)


Thank you so much L-aspetto,

I have taken note of everything I think your really onto despite not even seeing me, thank you so much!
 
I was feeling shortness of breath a lot. I was always wondering why I could never get that good breath that feels so good. I read this article from Harvard and now I can get those full feel-good breaths anytime I want. I seriously recommend you read this article. It might help. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/take-a-deep-breath.

You might not get a good deep breath immediately but the exercises leads to one every time. It's so awesome. I went from getting one good breath every once in a while to having one any time want.
 
Sorry my previous post might not have been what you're looking for. Try researching laryngospasm and see if that's similar to what you're feeling. Other than that I don't know. Sorry I can't be more help. Hope you find what you're looking for. :)
 
Hi everyone,

I have joined this forum to try and search for answers, I have a long history and all I can do is pray that I might find some direction on this forum.

I am not a typical free diver, I hold my breathe and catch crayfish; I haven't had any training and possibly, that damage has been done.

I started free diving a year ago and would go to maybe 8m, 10m max and stay under only for 30 seconds, not much longer. One day a year ago now I was diving and I got really cold, I had also swallowed a lot of salt water due to dodgy snorkel. I remember burping a lot whilst trying to dive (and I still do this and I don't know why!). When I got back I got a bad chest infection and cough. It went away but when it did I was stuck with shortness of breath.

Everyday I can't breathe properly. I yawn a lot and try get the air in and sometimes it doesn't go in down into my lungs. Sometimes I can get it in but the more you force it sometimes the harder to take the deep breathe. Sometimes I feel like I am choking or being strangled and I have a constant wheezing noise from my throat. The other thing is a have a weird croup sounding cough which has never gone away either and comes and goes. My oxygen saturation levels are normal, no asthma, blood tests normal, chest x-ray and CT scan both normal. The only thing abnormal was my lung function test which showed that my 'gas transfer' the called it was not normal.

I am a mountain bike instructor for my job and it has been so hard, I really am clutching at strings,

Any help, any comments, even if they are negative I don't care I just need something (and sorry if I posted in the wrong forum).

Thank you
Christa

Hi Christa

A few options to try or not. But I would also suggest speaking to a healthcare practitioner before attempting anything.

1. Have you tried meditative or mindful breathing? Breathing in for 4 seconds, holding for 7 seconds and exhaling for 8 seconds. The number of seconds can be adapted either shorter or longer depending on what you are comfortable with.
2. Taking full breaths. Begin with belly breathing while sitting comfortably, inhale through the nose and exhale through the mouth. It is easier if you place your hand on your belly to feel the expansion. When you are comfortable with that you can fill the belly and then the chest area in a single breath.
3. Join a meditative yoga class, where they teach different breathing techniques combined with relaxation.

Please will you update this thread on your recovery, just to satisfy my curiosity
 
DeeperBlue.com - The Worlds Largest Community Dedicated To Freediving, Scuba Diving and Spearfishing

ABOUT US

ISSN 1469-865X | Copyright © 1996 - 2024 deeperblue.net limited.

DeeperBlue.com is the World's Largest Community dedicated to Freediving, Scuba Diving, Ocean Advocacy and Diving Travel.

We've been dedicated to bringing you the freshest news, features and discussions from around the underwater world since 1996.

ADVERT