Re: breathlessness/poor lung function

[Guest guest]

Dear Dwight,

Some additional things to consider:

* When you were sitting around and had the episodes of " shortness of

breath " , did you check your heart rate?

* If an episode happens again, you might want to see what your heart is

doing. To do that accurately, you should practice beforehand being able to

accurately find and measure your pulse - carotid (in the neck) or radial

(wrist) pulse. Record what your heart rate is per minute somewhere for

your doctor. The carotid pulse is easy to find, and is pretty strong. Only

check 1 side of your neck at a time. Check these web sites for the actual

locations of your pulses:

http://medicine.wustl.edu/~ysp/MSN/experiments/archive/857361537.Bi.html

http://www.nsucom2005.com/PeripheralVascularSysObjectives.htm

* When you are having the " shortness of breath " , and you are checking your

pulse, is the rate regular or irregular?

The reason that I am thinking this, is that sometimes " shortness of breath "

can happen when you have an irregular heartbeat. You might be skipping

some beats. And the doctor would not always be able to detect an irregular

heart beat at the time of an office visit since sometime irregular

heartbeats occur at different times.

If you did have an irregular heart beat when you were having any " shortness

of breath " , you might want to see how many irregular beats that you are

having for a given amount of time. How many skipped beats per minute, for

instance, when you are having them? And then record that info for your

doctor.

If you did have an irregular heart rate, you can also check as to the type

of pattern of your skipped beats and record this info for your

doctor. There are generally 2 types of irregular heart rate:

* regular irregular heart rate - this means that you skip a beat after 2,

3, or 4 regular beats. There is a regular pattern to the skipping. This

can feel like: beat, beat, beat, skip, beat, beat, beat, skip. OR beat,

beat, skip, beat, beat, skip, beat, beat, skip. You get the pattern.

* irregular irregular heart rate - this means that you are skipping heart

beats and there is no regularity about when you are skipping them. It can

feel like: beat, beat, beat, skip, beat, skip, beat, beat, beat, beat,

skip, etc. OR something like that. In other words, an irregular pattern

of skipping mixed in with regular beating.

A heart rate that go into irregular beating occasionally can only be

checked with monitors that are worn for awhile. Types include:

* 24 hour Holter monitor (which will ONLY check your heart rate for 24 hours)

* Event recorder - you have to figure out what you want recorded, but you

wear the thing for longer than 24 hours. I think I have heard / read that

you can wear them for several weeks. YUK!!

Check this site that talks more about them:

http://heartdisease.about.com/library/blholter.htm

Anyway, I am not a doctor, and am NOT Diagnosing your problem.

These are just some ideas that you might want to consider in addition to

the lung problems that you say that you are having.

Carol

At 11:11 PM 08/18/2002 +0000, you wrote:

>I am age 70 and in relatively good health. About two months ago I

>had a new experience. Just sitting around I had feelings

>of " shortness of breath " . After having 3 episodes in 4 days I went

>to my heart doctor who ran three tests and said " good news/bad news "

>It is definately not your heart but we don't know what it is, go see

>a pulmonary specialist. Since the symptoms were not related to

>exertion the pulmonary guy got all upset and sent me for a CT scan to

>see if I had a blood clot on the lungs. Since I did not he gave me a

>long series of breath tests and another set after taking an inhaler. He said

>my lung function was only about 50% of normal and could have been

>caused by second hand smoke as I never had any signs of bronchitis or

>asthma in my life. My wife has been puffing away for 45 years.

>Lately, I have been trying to avoid the smoke but the previous year

>may have added up.

>

>He told me to take an Advair inhaler every day and Albuterol if I had

>a bad attack. After reading the literature, I got scared by the side

>effects. I bought the Albuterol for ememrgencies and started looking

>into alternatives. My GP said the inhalers bail you out but do

>nothing to cure the bad lungs. He suggested 200 mg of Co-Q-10, 2,000

>mg of buffered Vit C and gave me some deep breathing exercises.

>

>I saw a suggestion of using a cold mist vaporizer with a gallon of

>water and 16oz of 3% hydrogen peroxide. Does anyone have any

>experience with a cold mist vaporizer and h2o2? I bought a Kaz

>vapoerizer. Any reason to use anything different. I presume I would

>just use it at night in the bedroom? I presume it would not cause

>any side effects for me or my wife?

>

>Since the problem is more of an annoyance at this stage rather than

>any big scary thing, I would appreciate any suggestions anyone would

>have with alternative ways to improve my lungs. If my lungs are

>where they are from years of breathing cigarette smoke and can not be

>rehabilitated, are there any other medicines with no side effects,

>herbs, berries, roots, ancient chants, etc. to help.

>

>Dwight