View Full Version : Feel like a can't get a full breath
Lots of symptoms that have me insanely worried about pulmonary embolism. Random sharp chest and back pains all day for over a week now. Lateral chest tenderness, slight fatigue, a slight dry cough, but worst of all, air hunger. No matter how deep I breathe in, it doesn't feel satisfying. There's no pain with breathing but I can't get my mind off it.
It's not cardiac, that I know (thoroughly tested). I went to the ER and had blood tests and a chest X-ray that looked clear about 20 days ago but I'm not convinced that I'm not walking around with a clot in me. I did some walking around NYC today with a suitcase and I felt a bit winded just walking around, up and down stairs etc. Maybe it's just the anxiety that's messing with my breathing? I had a massage yesterday to treat my back pain but I don't think it did much. :weep:
If I'm not about to drop dead, then I'm close to having a breakdown. I wish I could just get a CT scan right now but I have nowhere to go. I have school and a social life to worry about and my pains and problems are intensely ruining them. Any advice would be seriously, seriously appreciated.
Edit: Btw, I'm an otherwise healthy 22 year old male with no risk factors besides my grandmother passing away from PE, and my grandfather having clots here and there. I know I shouldn't be worried but that's HA for ya! :(
I had this for almost a year. That horrible feeling that as hard you try as little result you get to get yourself a full and satisfying breath. Even yawing won't fix that 'air-thirst'. I learnt to live with it after have xrays and spirometry done that came out clear as crystal.
Try to massage yourself the area where the diaphragm is, because when it is too much tense you won't get that full breath in. It helped me.
Thanks for the reply. The dry-ish cough has me concerned. It's not persistent, but it'll come and go as the day goes on. Can PE symptoms come and go? The chest pain and discomfort has been present for at least a month but the back pain is a new persistent issue. I read that lung problems can cause referred pain and I'm worried that's the problem. I don't want to go to the ER for them to say I'm okay, but I feel like a CT is the only thing that can put my mind to rest.
You dont CT scans like you d eat cheesburgers. Scans Come with a price: there are dangerous and bring hazard to your body. Ionisation rads are cancer promoters. One needs a solid reason to get inside the tube.
I hate air hunger. Heart palpitations seem to be a big trigger. Often I notice the lack of air way before the palpitations. But they do often cause that sensation for some reason.
I got one of those finger pulse oxygen monitors from amazon. So logically now I know if my oxygen is 98/99% clearly I'm getting enough.
But it still doesn't help with the air hunger. The only thing that seems to help is distraction and to ignore ir. Chewing gum and eating mints seem to ease it too.
Also making sure you're not breathing too fast and shallow.
I hate being aware of my breathing. Once I'm aware it's hard to ignore it.
I was able to relax with friends and get some sleep after reading that an echocardiogram can help rule out PE. Then I woke up in the middle of the night with terrible heartburn. I was burping like crazy, it was probably the worst heartburn I've ever experienced. I had taken tums earlier in the day so I don't know if that's related. I think it's possible my pains and cough, and maybe even my abnormal breathing, can be blamed on GERD.
One issue is as soon as I woke up this morning the air hunger was present. Does anyone else find that air hunger can strike upon waking in the morning even with a clear mind?
The heartburn has lasted all day, along with the back pains. It's like I can feel the burning in my esophagus and I think it's disrupting my breathing. I also had major diarrhea earlier. I don't understand, my diet isn't that bad at all. Perhaps it really is just anxiety putting so much stress on my body it manifests itself in painful and uncomfortable ways. :weep:
The breathlessness is driving me mad. I can't tell if I'm getting enough oxygen or not. I played basketball this morning and also walked up a large staircase this afternoon and didn't any more winded. But the air hunger and slight cough is the worst. The chances of me having PE are wildly low and I still feel so sure that I have it. :weep::weep:
Your symptoms seem like the shortness of breath (chest pain, throat pain, coughing...)
I don't have much experience about this, just found some advice here https://authorityremedies.com/home-remedies-for-shortness-of-breath/ and hope it can help you. :(
Thanks for the response. I can't sleep at all, my abnormal breathing and dry cough are so concerning. I'm trying to relax. I know that if I had a PE there would be more pain involved. The cough is so scary to me. It's not intense, but it's dry and has been a thing for days now. I'm trying to resist calling 911 because it's probably not an emergency but I am so scared.
Well I did it. I went to the ER. They did another chest X-ray and told me its anxiety. It's crazy. I'm back home now and I feel like I can't breathe. Surely they wouldn't discharge me if something was wrong, but I still feel like I can't breathe. I'm such a wreck. My symptoms are ruining my life.
I'm drank a lot of alcohol for the Super Bowl yesterday and ended up smoking some cigarettes. I enjoyed myself for the most part but now my right leg hurts. I have pain on the back of my knee (like where the joint is) and it sometimes radiates into my calf and thigh. I don't have swelling or a limp, it almost feels like nerve pain. But I had this same pain like a month ago.
Please someone—would pain from a DVT come and go like that? I'm so scared.
Not sure if this thread is still active or not (I'm new) but I wanted to pop in and comment on your thread.
This past week I have had a CT scan for a PE and the lady who did my scan said that she has seen quite a few of them and I looked far too well. She said usually people are quite poorly when it's discovered.
I have the feeling of not being about to breathe/shortness of breath symptoms now going on a few months. The last few weeks have been the worse. I've had a barrage of tests recently and the only thing it can be is anxiety. So shortness of breath can definitely be anxiety.
Hi, I'm going to share my personal experience with this exact same symptom that took control of me for 7 months straight (not saying you will have to deal with this for that long) but it all started last summer when I felt something was wrong with my throat, I tried coughing but after was just left with shortness of breathe. Went to the throats doctor had a tube go down to check if something was stuck, they said there wasn't and that it is acid reflux mixed with globus hystericus but the feeling of not being able to breathe was CONSTANT. It wouldn't stop. I finally went to the emergency room, they did ekgs, and blood test first, ekg was normal but found that my ddimer, the blood clotting test was elevated ( I didn't have one) when I first heard that I was speechless and completely lost it. I'm 19 years old it just didn't make sense to me. Turns out it was a FALSE POSITIVE which means that I DID NOT have a blood clot. I got a CT scan and they said all normal and put it down to anxiety. Okay cool, but I still couldn't catch my breathe! I went to another doctor a week later and they said they really don't know what to say, I've had numerous tests but they said they'll give me an echocardiogram, which came back normal. They basically told me in the nicest way possible to stop coming here and talk a psychiatrist. Now, I rarely get the shortness of breathe but I realize that I only notice it when I'm all alone and not busy. When I am with friends or doing something productive, I don't notice it that much. I do think it is anxiety. I know it's hard to believe, you saw how many doctors and tests I've had to go through to finally think, "okay maybe I'm not dying and I need to work on improving my anxiety and maybe this will go away." And guess what, it did.
Thanks for the replies, always appreciated. My breathing has returned to normal for the most part. I still get "attacks" every now and then. My new concern is my leg which has really been hurting for a while now. It's always something new with HA.
Old thread I know but this is what I needed to read! I've currently got a productive cough that might well be a hangover from Covid in early January 22 (It's mid February 22 now). It just won't shift and eventually started coughing / sneezing yellow mucus. It seems to come and go but got a LOT worse and then I started getting:
A sore, inflamed feeling in my lungs
Specific, inside right hand shoulder blade pain
Dizzy / spacy
Strong heart palpitations.
The GP gave me 5 days of antibiotics as she thought perhaps post nasal drip that's got to my chest a bit. I have just finished them yesterday and although I feel a bit better, I had one night two days ago where I didn't sleep, my heart was thudding and resting at 100bpm just lying there in bed. It lasted about 48 hours and I started to feel short of breath. Today I feel a lot better and my resting heart rate went right down thankfully. I got a Sp02 reading from my Fitbit of 95% so I was a bit twitchy - I bought a finger one and it's at 98/99% so I will turn that feature off the Fitbit!! I hope everyone started to feel better after this! :)
Old thread I know but this is what I needed to read! I've currently got a productive cough that might well be a hangover from Covid in early January 22 (It's mid February 22 now). It just won't shift and eventually started coughing / sneezing yellow mucus. It seems to come and go but got a LOT worse and then I started getting:
A sore, inflamed feeling in my lungs
Specific, inside right hand shoulder blade pain
Dizzy / spacy
Strong heart palpitations.
The GP gave me 5 days of antibiotics as she thought perhaps post nasal drip that's got to my chest a bit. I have just finished them yesterday and although I feel a bit better, I had one night two days ago where I didn't sleep, my heart was thudding and resting at 100bpm just lying there in bed. It lasted about 48 hours and I started to feel short of breath. Today I feel a lot better and my resting heart rate went right down thankfully. I got a Sp02 reading from my Fitbit of 95% so I was a bit twitchy - I bought a finger one and it's at 98/99% so I will turn that feature off the Fitbit!! I hope everyone started to feel better after this! :)
Just what I needed to read too as also feeling I can’t get a deep breath and have an awful cough cough that is both productive but dry at times too - I also tested positive for covid on 1 February and think it is the hangover from covid but being a terrible worrier my mind is spiralling out of control - I was terrified of catching it and didn’t get cough till toward the end of 10 days so still coughing early days - just appreciate so much having these pages to realise I am not alone in my numerous health fears x
My cough also came after my isolation - how weird - I wonder if it's a new variant? I'm trying to calm myself but It's so hard to.
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