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Why shortness of breath?

I am at the moment Covid-19 pos so I chose to post here however I don’t need to have covid for this to occur but for it to get as bad as I will talk about here I need to have a respiratory infection of some kind. I also have Sjögren’s syndrome which has me taking a steroid inhaler twice a day so I can breathe in the cold winter air. No asthma apparently but always get phlegm and coughy when I laugh hard or run a shorter distance.

I was picked up by an ambulance and brought to the emergency room earlier this week because it was hard to breathe. Basically I was panting because my body told me too and whenever I tried to slow down my breathing it feels like when you’re holding your breath. The ambulance and emergency room found my O2 saturation at 100% and my blood gas showed signs of hyperventilation. Now this doesn't and didn’t surprise me at all as I can feel that I am getting enough oxygen, as long as I am panting. The first time this happened during another infection I had pre-corona the emergency room all thought I was having a panic attack. That is absolutely not what is happening. I have had them in the past, they’re completely different and don’t last for 6-8 hours.

EKG was good. Blood gas good. As I managed to slow my breathing down more and more without feeling like I was going to suffocate my saturation sank and eventually the panting stopped completely and I had a saturation at 93-94%. According to the hospital staff, my saturation should still be bad even with the panting if that was the problem. I argue that my body obviously is panting for a reason. It’s basically very laborsome to fill my lungs.

Am I missing something here? Is my logic really not valid? And what words am I supposed to use to explain how I feel to avoid the panic attack label? And why would I suddenly feel shortness of breath if I have no trouble saturating?

Thank you for reading this far. While I’m just thankful I don’t need medical help, I want to understand what I am going through.
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134578 tn?1693250592
Have you ever read anything by Noah Greenspan? He's pretty plainspoken about the fact that there is not always a correlation between dyspnea (air hunger) and oxygen saturation. The rest of this post is quoting him. You can find articles by him online, and I'll put the name of his book at the bottom of the post.
_____________

"There are many, many factors besides just the respiratory system and pulmonary function that can affect how well or how poorly we breathe.  These include things such as cardiovascular health, level of conditioning (or deconditioning), medications, emotional state, and weather, among others.

"This means that you can be short of breath, even extremely short of breath, even in the presence of normal oxygen saturation. Conversely, you can be hypoxic even if you are not particularly short of breath or disproportionately to your shortness of breath.

“Recovery from Shortness of Breath:

"1. Stop the activity you are doing. You either have to reduce your demand for air or increase your supply. The best way to reduce the demand is to stop whatever it is you’re doing.
2. Talk to yourself, reminding yourself that you know what to do (assuming that you do actually know what to do. If you don’t know, consider enrolling in either an in-person or online pulmonary rehabilitation program.)
3. Change your position. Certain positions help regain control of breathing, including several variations of bending over or leaning forward, resting arms on thighs or on a stationary object. This allows the abdominal contents to drop forward, improving respiratory mechanics.
4. Begin controlled breathing techniques. These include diaphragmatic and pursed-lip breathing, among others. Again, if unfamiliar with these techniques, a pulmonary rehabilitation program, either in person or online, can provide guidance.
5. Reassess and adapt. After catching your breath, reassess the situation and continue the activity (if you can) using controlled breathing techniques and modifying the activity.
6. Consider using your rescue inhaler (with your doctor’s blessing) to further increase your air supply. In an ideal world (and with your doctor’s blessing), you might consider pre-medicating approximately 15 minutes before activity."

His book is called "Ultimate Pulmonary Wellness."

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