I have posted before on this subject & have done a search but i wonder if those of you who suffer air hunger, would write a few words about what works for you. I want to give my Doc this list after some imput. He says he thinks that air hunger is due to a malfunction in the brain chemistry rather than oxygen starvation. Mean while, i continue to feel suffocated.
My doc is very willing to try different things with me to alleviate my symptoms but so far with this one, we have drawn a blank.

Your opinions & experiences would be welcome.

I have had this symptoms myself over the years, sometimes to the point of it being debilitating. I have had pulse ox done at hospital and it always showed I was getting plenty of oxygen, although, I felt as though I was struggling to get air. Any amount of walking or exercise or any exercision at all made it much worse.

I tried inhalers, breathing treatments, was never given oxygen. I found that just staying on the antibiotics, limiting my activities until this symptom passed was all that would help me.

I hope this passes quickly for you, I know how uncomfortable and scary this is feeling as though you can't get enough air.

You can do a search on here, there have been many discussions on this over the years.

Good luck, hope you find a course of treatment that will work for you, I think it is just the Lyme manifesting itself in yet another of it's cruel forms.

They would tell me that my oxygen level looked better than theirs.

But, after a year of treatment, I still have difficulty in this area.

It comes and goes. Mostly, it comes.

I am wondering now if it is part of the weakness that has affected all of my body adn how to get my strength back.

--Annie

A respiratory therapist came to the house this past week and gave me a sheet of exercises to do. If this is your problem and it causes a lot of pain to inhale, (hence the shallow breathing)...the advice I was given was to try to breathe to the point of pain and also to try to do stretches (like sidebends) that will open up the chest wall and diaphragm. Shallow breathing will only cause further damage to the lungs. Also, nose breathing, deliberate coughing and moist heat (such as a hot wet towel) wrapped around the lung areas - if the alveoli are affected.Oh, and hot showers (again if the alveoli are affected) to try to move the obstructions through(if this is a problem, such as blood or mucous).

Also, she wanted me to practice being very conscious of diaphragmatic breathing. Which does bring an awareness to how much space can be used to inhale.

I hope this helps. There are a lot of other possibilities and your heart could be an issue as well.

For me it was extreme pain and spasming on inhaling, which left shallow breathing as my only option and severe air hunger.

When it was really bad, I got a prescription for sublingual ativan to calm me down as my anxiety was so bad I'd breath faster & then, I'd feel like I was suffocating.

Interestingly, i am just recovering from pleurisy. I had it two years ago, quite badly but this time, just my left side was affected. This does indeed make breathing harder but the air hunger has been getting steadily worse for the last year or so.

I can't remember who said what ( Lyme brain, sigh! ) but i have been pulsing abx for the last 10 months after a long break because i was told that after 3 years regular IV, i would be clear of infection & what i had was post lyme syndrome. This is what we seem to be up against in the UK. I had a microscopy with one of our LLMD's & he found me to be heaving with ketes!

It's obvious that the abx i'm pulsing have done nothing & so we are re-thinking options at the moment.

You are right about the shallow breathing, i know that i do this as a defence against pain & spasm but whether excercises will help??? I seem to spasm at the slightest thing.
Would the hot towel be better than a heat pad ( i use one every day for relief )& does the steam make any difference if it's on the chest & not being breathed in?

Thanks again, it was great ( not that i wish this on anyone else ) to find someone else affected by pleurisy through Lyme. This is such a complex disease, it's no wonder we find it so hard to keep up!

It's Emma from Belfast here...I have had the air hunger symptom too off and on for years and I think it was the Babesia..Dr B agreed.

At times I used to not be able to walk to the top of the street without feeling suffocated and that I may pass out.

When I started Azithromycin on a tiny dose the symptom came on badly and I was taken into hospital...I felt like I was breathing but no air was going in.

My blood oxygen level was measured and was fine and a chest x-ray showed nothing but the doctor could hear a pleural rub in my left lung...presumably caused by the infection.

I think I still get this mildly when taking antibiotics at times though it is not as bad as it used to be before Mepron/Zith.

Also, my resting pulse will be around 60, but climb one flight of stairs,a nd it's 110. PArtly due to deconditioning and weight gain, maybe some anxiety too? I hate it!!

i have been to a cardiologist, had a cardiac ultrasound, EKG, etc., and everything is normal. Maybe a 5 week herx?? Who knows. It's a vicious cycle-- I get the air hunger, get anxious, it gets worse, etc. So I take a half doseof Xanax if it's really bad. LAtely my arms and legs feel like they get no oxygen, walking or holding my arms out for driving brings on increased muscle fatigue.

It does not help that i started a new full time job this week. WAs only 3 days a week before, and shorter hours. Now i have an 8 hour day and an hour's drive each way. i guess I need to adjust.

I'm not sure about the babs in my case. Sending off a Bowen next tuesday coz AW thinks i should get it checked again. Everyone seems to think i have all the symptoms & i wouldn't be surprised especially from the amount of ab pain i get.

I think cardiac symptoms often come with herxes, even if there doesn't seem to be an obvious problem. Many people complain of the feeling of heart racing or even slow beating.

I have arrythmia & also some scarring ( supposedly from all the iv i've had but i'm not so sure )but the air hunger doesn't seem related to that.

I don't get to excersise as such because i'm in a wheelchair & all my excersises are physiotherapy related so i guess that my lungs will have lost condition & sleepy has a very good point about loss of lung capacity.

I hope that you full time job goes well for you although i guess it will take some adjusting!

My son is always short of breath from asthma and this is how they measure his lung function.
I believe the FEV1 (forced expiratory volume) is the important part.

The pleural rub in my case was really minor, not requiring treatment...I just wanted to mention it as it can be caused by these infections.

The pleural rub was identified last May when I was the most ill I have ever been and was in hospital overnight.

I had abdominal pain then too...felt nauseous all the time then felt as if I'd been punched in the gut when I ate, weeks of that meant I became anorexic.

I am doing a lot better now thankfully & able to work a bit - the year of Mepron/Zith REALLY helped but Dr B wants me to stop it now and not be on it over a year.

I still get palpitations on exertion and badly in bed at night though...not sure if they are Babesia, Bartonella or NMH tho!

Hope Dr W can get some co-infection treatment
sorted out for you soon.

I had tried to find this post earlier and couldn't.

I wasn't able to read all the posts again tonight, but I wanted to thank the person who said it is like trying to breath through a straw or sponge.

That is a good way of explaning it.

Now, you asked about the heat and whether or not a heating pad would work as well as a hot wet towel. I asked the respiratory therapist the same question and she said it was the moist heat on the lungs that seemed to make the difference.

Now, she said to me, that I had better get the pleura moving or I would be in for some permanent damage. That was a pretty big motivator for me, and I sleep almost all of the time with this head crushing fatigue. So, I try to even just breath big (and I sing!!) every time I think of it......and with lyme brain, of course that's never often enough! :>)

But, pain really is a good reminder.

The other thing I thought maybe worthwhile mentioning is that I had this thing I had bought years ago to help enhance my performance for cycling called a "power lung". Its a resistance breathing apparatus and I showed that to the respiratory therapist and she said it was designed after a system that was used for quadraplegics (or paras, I forget) to use to exercise their lungs.

I find right now, just doing the expansion exercises is enough for me, but I might move to something like that. You might set up a meeting with a respiratory therapist to discuss some options..

I found that just by knowing what was causing the pain, made it a lot less scary.

To add to what I posted in March. I started Zithro/Ceftin/Malarone/Artemisinin combination to combat Babesia and this air hunger symptom has been much less frequent.

This is what I posted before.

The key is, have your oxygen levels been ok when tested? Mine are fine. It feels like I have to concentrate to get a deep breath. I feel like I get enough air when I yawn but that is about it when it hits me. It can last for days, weeks or months.
Some things that have helped:

My osteopath doctor said that my diaphragm wasn't moving right, he gave me some exercises to try several times per day. It's hard to explain in writing, but bend your arms toward you in front, With your hands tucked under your chin slowly raise your arms up, out and around..Breath in while doing this. When you bring your arms down, breath out. Try this about 10 times a few times a day.

Next magnesium. This will help the muscles. Try an anti-inflammatory.

Heat can provide some benefit. Lastly, when it is really bad I went on some short-term Lorazapam. Not much, only twice a day worked for me. Also, taking Ambien worked too. I was so afraid I wouldn't wake up because of the breathing I had a hard time sleeping. Some times I'd wake up gasping, I still do that sometimes.

The docs theory is that the lyme/coinfection is hitting the muscles/nerves around my stomach/chest area, making me more aware of the breathing and making it harder to get the muscles to do what I want.

I do remember your helpful & comprehensive post from march. I did take up some of your suggestions but my current condition makes it more complicated than it seems.

Magnesium, i have been on it some years. I am magnesium deficient anyway but i take high doses so if that was going to help me, i would have thought it should have by now.

I did ask my Doc about Lorazapam but he said no because i am on morphine.

My oxygen sats vary. As i have been saying in this thread, i have had pleurisy. That has affected my oxygen levels, but i have also had ok results too.

I am waiting for a result from Bowen regarding Babesia but i'm not so sure that this is the whole cause of the air hunger as i have heard that with Babs, it is a constant problem, where as mine is intermittent & worse at night.
As i also said in this thread, excersise is a problem for me. My paralisis includes the upper abdominal muscles & partial diaphragm. I also suffer diaphragmatic spasm so deep breathing can set of major spasm.
I am being transferred to another physio therapy unit because they cover cognative function so i'm hoping that they will address the resporation issue too.

I use a heat pad every single day & night as the spasms respond to heat but i think i will try sleepy's suggestion of a hot wet towel & see if that helps too.
I have asked my LLMD if i can try Zith / mepron / regardless of the bowen result because none of my Lyme treatment, over 11 years,has had any effect at all & i am getting desperate. If i cover babs then i know i we haven't missed anything.

Thank you for re-posting.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mathias:
Be sure to be checked for mycoplasma. That commonly effects the lungs and is another common lyme co-infection.

My LLMD thinks all of my breathing problems are due to that, not lyme.

---

Mathias,

Would that come up on a Bowen if they are looking for coinfections or do you need a specific test? If so, who would test for it? I'm in the UK so i'd have to fedex a sample.
Thanks,
Wendy.x