Breathing slows and ceases with physical exertion

[kristinMC]

Two days ago, I ran across the street, became nausious, jittery and had difficulty breathing.  I started to pass out and sat down.  My breathing kept getting slower and slower.  I rested for an hour.  A hour later, I thought I recouperated and picked up my son and carried him to the car.  The symptoms came back, except the breathing came to a point where it stopped.  I may have passed out for a couple of minutes.  My son was kicking and screaming when I awoke.  Later that day I picked my son up and carried him, I had to lay down in bed because I couldn't catch my breath, nausious, started blacking out and I was very agitated/anxious? and overwhelmingly tired (like earlier)- my breathing got less and less.  My daughter said my son was moving my head yelling at me and I was unresponsive and my chest did not move and I was not breathing.  My kids thought I died.  All I remember was a peaceful feeling and like ice shot up through my body.  I have a history of strokes/TIAs (I'm 36)and hypo/hypertension-unstabel heart rate.  The doctors don't know the cause.  I checked my BP later that night and I was hypotensive (Systolic 81, Diastolic 63).  I don't know what happened.  I got better with rest, but even now I can't walk a block without having nausea and breathing problems.  I don't know if I should see a doctor or who to see, because I have no idea what could have happened.  Any ideas? Thank you. -KC

[gemmascott]

A related discussion, Lung abscess was started.

[gemmascott]

A related discussion, Is the Lung abscess deadly? was started.

[kristinMC]

Thank you!  You may have saved my life.  After receiving your reply, I went to the hospital ER and the ER doctor recommended a stress test.  My heart rate was 130/70 prior to the test.  During the thallium stress test after about a minute or so on the machine my systolic dropped to 70 and then later shot up to 140.  I don't recall the diastolic pressure reading.  But I know whatever was going on caused everyone shock and some panic.  I was too out of it, nauseated and dizzy to recall anything else.  They said it wasn't normal.  I know my legs cramped up real bad about the time the BP dropped. I'm a little nervous now as I woke up with problems breathing, chest pain and my entire body "fell asleep" - you know that tingling you get when your leg or arm "falls asleep".  Apparently, they now know I have a problem, so I'm very happy about that.  For the past 5 months they have been treating me like I'm nuts because I'm only 36 years old.  I also found out that I have Lupus (SLE) this week as my neurologist got back the additional blood work back.  Hopefully, after this and the strokes I've had they will finally take me seriously.  I really appreciate your help.  After being pushed aside and treated like I'm neurotic all these years (8 yrs), I have a tendancy to disregard my symptoms, even the serious ones.  I needed the extra encouragement.  
God bless - Kristin

[National Jewish]

This sounds like a dreadful experience.  Even though you had difficulty breathing, this does not sound like a lung problem, with the exception that it could be caused by clots to your lung, with or without pulmonary hypertension.  Your history of strokes suggests that you might have some type of clotting disorder.  This would go along with the suggestion of clots to your lung.

What you describe suggests that your body is unable to increase the amount of blood pumped by your heart during activity.  It seems that there is something blocking the flow of blood from your heart to the rest of your body.  This can occur with pulmonary hypertension, with or without clots.  Also this can occur with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.  This heart problem blocks the flow of blood out of the heart into the aorta.  This circumstance is also suggested by your blood pressure of 81/63.

Your first step should be to have a heart evaluation, including an echocardiogram.  Then you should have a CT scan of your lungs to look for blood clots.  You should not delay.

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