Iron band around ribcage

[Freaked]

That's what it feels like sometimes. Like I literally cannot force my chest open to breathe. Terrifying. My pulse oximeter measures me as being 98 or 99 (touch wood) but I still get panicked. Sometimes I can hear a slight whistle in my breathing and I worry I'm having an asthma attack or something (though i'm pretty sure i was checked for it). But then I know that with an asthma attack that severe you'd normally have lower oxygen or more than just slight whistling. And asthma wouldn't normally make you short of breath for hours every day just sitting there. Also, talking seems to help sometimes which it wouldn't with asthma.

Does anyone else get this awful iron ribcage that makes you panic? Is there any trick for getting rid of it? None of the recommended things seem to work.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I have asthma and you would need medication to relax your breathing if you were having an attack. If that doesn't work, it's emergency time for a nebuliser.

Asthma could make you short of breath a lot but I want to stress this too you - it would be chronic asthma, as in people who struggle to do anything physical, some maybe on oxygen tanks, etc. Your GP would not miss anything like this, it would be evident to them as you walked in.

Like you say, it's anxiety. My anxiety, whilst it probably doesn't help, has never triggered an asthma attack in 7 years.

Having a slight whistle wouldn't make you think it was an asthma attack, the fact you couldn't breathe would make you know you were having an asthma attack. Does that make sense?

Whilst my asthma rarely bothers me, I do get the whistling thing at times if I am very tense in the chect or tense in the abdominal muscles. It's usually more the latter.

If it's muscular, you could try progressive muscle relaxation. I know you said on another thread that Mindfulness meditation didn't work for you, but I would add this as like PMR, it makes you focus on tensing and untensing these muscles around the core.

Believe me, having asthma has made me worry that I could bring them on thorugh anxiety and it's a vicious circle from there but in reality, it has never once happened in 7 years and I know the tightness is the anxiety.

[TelBoy]

Hi There:)) I know someone who has got on 30% lung capacity and even when they use their oxygen level thing it nearly always says 97/98 so using that does not prove you are not in danger ( as such)) if you are really worried, go to the GP and ask him/her to send you to the Thoracic dept at the hospital... I was sent there.... you will soon know if you have anything wrong with your chest/lungs etc... I didn't want to go, but I kept having what you describe... and even after ALL the tests they did, they told me I was fine.... but I still get what you describe ....all I can say it is not anxiety ( as such ) it is more to do with your brain making you think that you are having the feelings.. which FEEL real when you are having chest tightness and things like that..... terrible life we lead eh:scared15:

[Freaked]

Thanks for the replies. I've had my chest looked at a whole bunch (including ct scan) and docs have used spirometers on me a few times which have been normal. I had a lung function test and tbh I'm not sure it was 100% normal (the guy gave me an inhaler to see if it improved things, which it didn't iirc), but nobody bothered getting back to me so I figured it couldn't have been terrible. But it seemingly isn't cancer or heart failure or anything (touch wood) cos I've been checked for those.

[Anxious_gal]

If you're low on oxygen your lips would also be blue so I wouldn't worry too much about lack of oxygen. They use those finger pulse things in hospitals all the time so I would say it's only in exceptional situations that the reading would be wrong. It's usually due to the presence of carbon minoxide in the blood as it bonds to the oxygen molecules. So being a smoker would give you a higher reading than you really have. Unless you haven't smoked in a few hours.

I'm sure they are other factors as well.

Do you think it might be some form of muscle spasm ?

[MyNameIsTerry]

I would say speak to your GP if you were given an inhaler. Let them explain why it was prescribed once only and whether any follow up is required. You could have asthma, but dont worry its very common and controllable these days.