symptoms

hello everyone,

hope all had a wonderful christmas! i spent mine in the hospital. shortness of breath. reall bad this time. i had a pm placed in april of '08, still out on loa, & disablity.
have sob even doing little things---like clearing the dinner table & walking.
cardio says that pace is in place & doing its job. pulm. says lungs are clear & no copd or fluid or anything.
none of them can give me an answer----why cant i breathe?
md wont even let me exercise or walk----says have meds & food delivered, and if you must--use a cart at the store.
ia m in no where. cant make any decisions until i knnow if i will return to work & what is the problem.
help!

2 Comments

I can't breathe either

by Angelie - 2009-01-05 02:01:22

Hey there,
I can relate what you're going through. I know how frustrating it can be to be so limited in your activities with persistant SOB.
I don't know your other health concerns/problems, or what you're on disabilty/ loa for.
I would think that your physicians would be able to enlighten you somewhat as to the cause of your symptoms.
I have a pacemaker, implanted in April 08 as well. I'm SOB frequently but I take Toprol XL which can cause SOB, and I also have phrenic nerve damage from a previous ablation procedure.
It just seems that if your physicians can tell you what NOT to do, it sure seems that they would be able to explain to you WHY you can't do it. I would continue to ask them for answers. That's what they get the big bucks for. You deserve answers. If you can't get answers from your current doctors, I would suggest you find one who's willing to help you figure it out.
Keep us posted, and you'll be in my thoughts.
Best of luck,
Angelie

SOB Problem

by SMITTY - 2009-01-05 06:01:16

Hello,

Happy New Year.

I certainly can't give you a diagnose. but I can tell you my experience with an almost exact same problem. The difference is that I don't think mine was quite as bad as yours, but it had stopped me from doing many things. I was limited to walking about 200' before having had to sit down and rest. And yes I was using the electric carts when trying to shop.

This was in 2002 and my pacemaker was about two years old and all I had ever had from it was problems, but none that I could associate with causing my SOB. Finally the SOB got so bad that my wife said enough is enough so come on we are going to find a doctor that can help you. I ended up seeing 3 or 4 doctors with each of them giving me that "deer in the headlights" look. Finally my primary care physician referred to a cardiologist for a heart catheterization. Turned out that one of my bypasses (I had bypass surgery some 20 years prior) was mostly blocked. That Dr. put in a stent and sent me home the next day. The difference that stent made was unbelievable. The SOB was completely gone!

Since that time I've collected three additional stents and none of the results have been as dramatic as that one, but all the doctors assure me they have helped my heart.

I should add that I put up with the SOB getting worse and worse for several months and really had decided that I was doomed to live with the problem for the remainder of my life. I have added that because since my SOB problem I have found almost without exception that there is help with our heart problems, it just takes looking for the right doctor. Finding that right doctor sometimes calls for telling a doctor you know well and have great faith in that you would like another opinion.

I wish you the very best and I hope your problem can be solved (whatever that solution may be) as simply as mine was.

Smitty

You know you're wired when...

You can finally prove that you have a heart.

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