Hello Everyone,
I wanted to post on the forum regarding what I have been struggling with for a little over a year now. I have talked about this with my physician multiple times and I have even seen a pulmonary specialist multiple times. The first time I went the doctor did not suspect anything wrong with me so he didn't want to order any tests but rather put me on a medication called Beru or Bero (Its an inhaler). I did the inhaler for two weeks without any improvement to my condition. So I asked him if we can perform a Pulmonary function test which he didn't think it was necessary but I wanted to do it so he ordered it and I will post the results with you. I also went to see an allergist/ENT doctor who said that I have a bit of a deviated area in my nose which is why he believes i might be wheezing through my nose. He also ran a spirometry test which I will post.
I should explain a little about myself and what I am currently dealing with cause this post is probably very confusing right now. I am currently a three year Firefighter/EMT about to start college for Nursing in two weeks and eventually work my way up to achieve my masters degree in Nurse Practitioner. For the past year and a half I have came down with a weird breathing issue that no doctor can seem to figure out which has me left in a corner without answers. Throughout the day I have this constant struggle of taking deep breaths. When I go to take a deep breaths I can complete it cause it feels like my lungs are hard and wont expand fully which cuts of the deep breath and leaves me very unsatisfied and left with a feeling of needing more air. Every now and then I will have a very very mild cough where it feels like I have ti cough but its not even like a cough but rather like a clear the throat kind of hack but thats it. Nothing comes up and I'm not coughing up anything. I also get heart palpations really bad throughout the day but they go away and come back so its quite random. I would like to consider myself a very healthy individual and by that I mean I have never once did any drugs or picked up a cigarette. The only issue is growing up I was around second hand smoke due to my grandparents but my parents never smoked. Now working at the fire station I'm around cleaning supplies that give off fumes, Dust, Fumes from the engines and of course second hand smoke from employees and smoke when we get fires. I try my best to avoid all these exposures but when the guys are barbecuing its really hard to avoid the smoke coming from the barbecue cause it gets into the station. I should also mention before I forgot that according to allergy test I am allergic to Dust, Trees, Grass and certain insects. I will also post these results.
My main concern with my pulmonary function test is my results are normal but at my age only being 23 years old I am worried that my results are not over the 100% mark and I'm not understanding why cause a lot of people my age are. I feel like even though I am in the high 80’s and 90’s, I will decrease so quick and develop a terminal illness and I'm worried. As you can see from my pulmonary function test graph at the bottom my graph coves in slightly and is it just me or does that not indicate an obstruction (slight).
I do not have any medical history other than my allergies. No lung issues run in my family that I am aware of. The only thing that I know that runs in my family is CHF, Diabetes, Hypertension, Alzheimer’s. I am not due for another pulmonary function test until 6 months from now so I'm hoping nothing will decrease or if possible I'm hoping something might increase but I doubt thats possible.
I also wanted to mention that for the past week I have been getting really uncomfortable heart palpations randomly throughout the day and it feels as if my chest or lungs feel sore and I am not sure if this is due to maybe taking deep breaths to try and catch my breaths cause they are getting cut off. Yesterday at work I was coughing a decent amount due to a tickle feeling in the back of my throat but that kinda went away. Now its just a very minor cough where it is very random. Another symptom I recently have been experiencing like crazy is my stomach feeling bloated all day even when I first wake up which makes me feel like maybe my diaphragm is pushed down into my stomach and is not working properly? I really have no idea and no Doctor can figure out a reason. I doubt I have congestive heart failure or any heart problems at 23 years old especially since I eat right and take care of myself but exercising routinely.
I want to apologize for the long post but I wanted to give as much info as possible and I really appreciate anyone who did read all of this.
