Please define Shortness of Breath

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CATDOG

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 27, 2010
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110
Location
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Please define Shortness of Breath. What exactly does that mean to you?
Are you "fighting for air"? Are you just breathing a bit harder than you used to at the top of the stairs? Does it just take longer to get back to breating normally? Do your lungs feel like they are stretched or stressed somehow? Tight?

I just haven't figured out how to describe things to my dr.
 
Everyone gets short of breath to some extent running up stairs, so it has to be relative to make any sense of the definition. The idea is that you become short of breath more quickly and easily. Simple, yes?

No (of course not). The problem is that it develops very slowly, creeping in like old age and the last ten pounds. You don't usually feel the change until it's very pronounced.

Angina very often accompanies it, although most people don't seem to recognize it. You may also feel a tightness or "lump" at the top of your throat at times, or a feeling like you've been running in very cold air. You might instead feel a short-term pain in you left arm, left chest, your back, your neck, or even your jaw. It won't always happen.

Symptoms are very difficult to gauge in oneself. We tend to either deny them to ourselves or inflate them in our minds.

Best wishes,
 
oh great.
after seeing my doctors and them telling me my valve is fine, i started working out again.

about 5-10 minutes in on the elliptical i have thought to myself:

what is this lump feeling in my throat

and i feel like i have been running in the cold air

however they have told me i am fine, and i have always tended to not believe them! should i tell them i am experiencing this?
 
To me, at first it felt like a wall in my lungs, like they couldn't expand enough, like the air wasn't getting into the bottom of my lungs, and like I was breathing through a film of water. Of course, I was. I was in CHF.
I had trouble getting enough air upon exhertion, (I went from running a full agility course of 21 obstacles, to 11, to 6) and recovery time afterwards was slower.
Eventually, I couldn't speak a full sentence, while sitting, without gasping for breath.
 
For me, I felt I could not take a deep enough breath to pull in enough air. It felt as though I could not inflate my lungs enough. My heart might pound a bit some of the times when I had the worst of SOB.
 
You know, it's been almost 5 years now and I'm not sure I remember as well as the other folks who have answered! I just know that it really did get progressively worse during the 3 years I had to wait for my 1.0 cm sq aortic valve to squeeze down to .7 cm sq. I had been told by my cardiologist 25 years prior that if I ever found myself regularly, oddly out of breath at the top of the stairs, or felt like there was an elephant sitting on my chest that I was to make an appointment and let him do an echo (in addition to the every 5 years I had been informed to do to monitor the bicuspid aortic valve). Living in a 2 story house with 3 teenagers, I knew something was up when I would always feel winded (like I'd just shot a few hoops at the park; a little winded and heavier breathing but not labored breathing) when I carried a full laundry basket up the stairs. It just seemed that if I added any weight to my person, I would really feel it. Hills, too. They became impossible to walk; while flat terrain was fine until the last few months. For me it was less of a pressure feeling, and more of a brain message saying, um, you're not going to make that on your own, you need me (the brain) to navigate your way up that hill. It's as if all the connections were breaking down. I had to really focus on not getting that winded feeling. As I got closer to surgery I think it did feel like I couldn't draw in enough oxygen to accomplish anything strenuous. I compensated for so much of that by just avoiding things (like hills and stairs!) and just went slow (3 steps at a time/rest for 10 seconds/3 more steps, etc.)

Fortunately I never was gasping for air. Many here have that feeling. That would be very frightening. All 3 cardios I ever saw (remember this was a 25+ year experience) said that I should not get to the point of feeling like I was going to pass out. THAT was dangerous and should be reported to them immediately. I only felt that way the final 8 months when I was cheering at my children's sporting events. I had to buy a longer lens for my camera and start shooting photos of them and their team while they played so I could avoid cheering!!! Cheering really took me out!!

For me it definitely seemed to be related to pushing myself and raising my blood pressure. Four months before surgery I couldn't even sashay/dance across the room without feeling so weak. Yeh. It was a weakness thing for me -- like I'd better sit down right away or collapse -- not faint -- just collapse.

Let us know how you're feeling!

Marguerite
 
I had SOB for about 3 months pre-op and some post-op, too -- not being able to talk w/out stopping for air, not being able to walk more than 1-2 blocks without stopping for air. I was also cyanotic -- ashen, blue -- and my friends and family NEVER mentioned it to me until after my surgery, seeing the comparison in coloring. I also constantly yawned when talking. Not sure if that was related to the SOB or being cyanotic. Or a combination of both.

Right before my consult with 2nd cardio, a friend suggested that maybe I didn't need OHS. I was horrified -- I felt so bad that I knew something had to be done. I did not want to continue living feeling that bad, and I don't ever want to feel that way again.

Even though I was in pain & discomfort, I felt much better the day after my surgery. But I kept looking for that Mack truck that ran into me.
 
Malibu82: darn straight you tell 'em. It's hard enough to get them to acknowledge symptoms. Don't wait until the end to let them know you're having them. They need to get on your record when they begin.

Every heart is different. You may feel it earlier than someone else. Your heart may need to be fixed sooner than someone else's might.

Best wishes,
 
I get the lump in the throat thing, and sometimes the yawning when walking. Mostly either an over-stretched feeling or a tightly contracting feeling very centrally located at first, then spreading slightly to the sides a couple inches. Not really sure how to explain it. The breathing ice-cold air feeling is familiar. It is not an elephant on my chest. I CAN keep walking--have to it's cold out and it takes 15 min. to get from car to office. Last summer/fall I had jaw achiness/jaw fatigue more so than what I get now. I am not fighting for air, in fact I sometimes wonder if I had been forgetting to breathe, so I take some deep breaths, but it doesn't really help relax the feeling away much.
My GP wasn't happy, but the cardio only asked about elephants (no), waking up short of breath (no, except when the dog is on top of me), and whether I had passed out at all again (not in 3 yrs, but almost 1X this year, co-worker said I had NO color). But is this a breathing airway thing or a heart thing? I can't tell. Is this just deconditioning? It feels stressful, but not like sharp pain. I get it more in the morning, not so much on the way out of work unless I have to struggle through snow. Weekend dog walking varies. Sometimes it goes away after a bit on a longer walk. I know it shouldn't be there, but not sure it's significant enough to start the ball rolling. Maybe I am just thinking about it too much.
I see the GP again in a week or so. I hope he TALKS this time instead of just writing. Argghh. I need some feedback from him. I never have a clue what he is thinking.
 
CatDog -

Since your GP doesn't tell you what he is writing / thinking, you can ASK for a Copy of his Office Notes.
By the HIPPA Law, you have a RIGHT to obtain copies of your Medical Records. They may want to impose a copying fee (often $1 per page but they may let you read them to see which pages you actually want copies of).

'AL Capshaw'
 
Experiences may be different. But it never completely went away for me. Especially when I am walking up hill, sometimes I just have to stop. Something inside, my air I guess, has to catch up. But I have some pulmonary hypertension too, so maybe that's part of my issue.
 
after valve replacement, I was slow to walk more than a few hundred feet,had trouble with SOB and doc said I had trace of Pnuemonia and gave me 2 weeks of antibiotics,which I took.Then After about 3 weeks of walking I was up to about 3 to 4 mi. a day,and climbing 3 to 4 flights of stairs to get ready for summer,and comercial fishing, all this with noSOB.Then one day on a walk my wife said HEY, your getting short of breath again.this is about week 6 or 7 after OH.Next day,first thing in the am I decided to climb stairs to go for a shower.Well I was so SOB after 7 steps I had to Stop..
Now 2 weeks later they have me back on Lasix and potassium,I feel a little better but still get winded after a flight of stairs..Sure hope it gets better out there some where..any ideas out there?
 
What I remember clearly was having to stop in the middle of a fast walk. I'm not sure if I was hyperventilating or if I felt my heart racing, or if I just felt whipped and unable to (or shouldn't) continue. First time was after a fast ~half-mile with a heavy backpack. Maybe second time was after running up 3 flights of stairs from a subway train, then starting to walk home fast. I got about 2 lamp-posts down the road before I felt I had to stop and lean against one of them for a couple of minutes.

I call that SOB, though the details are a little vague. Now, when I'm walking 16-minute miles on the track in the Cardiac Rehab center, it feels fast but pretty easy until somebody starts walking next to me and having a conversation. The extra "breath" from the talking usually gets me huffing. More than when I was asymptomatic, I think, though I seldom walked that fast while talking. . .
 
For me it was having to take deep breaths when laying down; as if I was not getting enough air. It helps to sleep with a fan. Just before my surgery, I felt more over-all weekness when going up steps than shortness of breath. Either way, it is the one of the worst symptoms of heart disease.
 
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