Restrictive breathing

Hello:

I have been experiecing difficulties breathing over the last six months. I informed my doctor in september of 2008, but he never addressed the issue, I start visiting a specialist is December, he said it was sleep apnea and I am currently waiting for my breathing machine. However, I feel its something else plaguing my breathing. It feels like sometimes I can't inhale, I'll make about two or three attempts and can't get that deep one and a few moments later go through another series of this and eventually i'll break through, but it is starting to worry me. Oh specialist put me on asthma medication, but this isn't improving it any.

[National Jewish Health]

I assume that the difficulties that you have “been experiencing over the last 6 months” are to be distinguished from nighttime breathing difficulties associated with sleep apnea.  If that is true and the difficulty you have inhaling is occurring in the daytime, that could be due to asthma resulting in over-inflated lungs or to a condition frequently associated with asthma, called vocal cord dysfunction (VCD).  You might want to ask your doctor about that possibility and request that he/she perform pulmonary function tests (PFTs) that include both inspiratory and expiratory flow-volume loops.  You should also have a chest x-ray.

There are many causes of “breathing difficulties”, often deemed synonymous with labored breathing or shortness of breath, including both heart and lung disease and also recurrent blood clots to one’s lungs.  Finally, uncomfortable or abnormal breathing can also be caused by acute and chronic anxiety.  This may also be worthy of further discussion with your doctor.

Good luck.