Can’t get deep breath / shortness of breath with normal oxygen sats

[Wmoejg]

E ver since March of this year, I've been massively struggling with my breathing. I feel as though I cannot get a deep breath in whatsoever. When this first began, I was 3 months postpartum and had experienced horrendous PVCs (palpitations/ extra heartbeats) during the late stage of pregnancy and early postpartum period - these were checked out, told they were benign but were just really uncomfortable and scary. So when the shortness of breath started I naturally took it really seriously as I believed this was to do with my heart, I went to hospital and they did a chest X ray, bloods and an ECG - all completely fine, with no explanation for my shortness of breath. I then went to my doctor as I didn't feel satisfied. I literally could not with any strength get a deep breath in, it almost felt like my diaphragm wasn't working? They did my oxygen sats, spoke to me and told me they felt it was just anxietyy and put me on anti depressants. I still didn't (and still don't) feel satisfied and returned to be told it was anxiety again. However, here I am 4 months later with the same symptoms with no relief. I tried diaphragmatic breathing but I find it hard to push my stomach out and think there may be a possible link with my breathing and my stomach. I am generally bloated at the moment, this is not relieved by passing wind. I have tenderness in the left side of my stomach, in line with my belly button (slightly above and to the left). If i push in I feel like I can feel lumpss but don't know if i am just paranoid and feeling normal things like my organs. I also feel the bloat in my upper middle abdomen too.
Anyway this is no way to live, I am anxious yes but this isn't solely anxiety. It is only relieved when I lay down or sleep, otherwise its constant and so scary
any ideas?.

Anxiety does funny things to you physically

It really really does. For me, I get completely zoned out a dissociated for weeks at a time. Constant yawning. Headaches. Extreme fatigue. The first time it happened I honestly thought I'd had a stroke or something. I could believe such real and terrifying symptoms came from my mind.

Aerophagia.

You think you're not breathing properly so you end up over breathing, gulping air. This leads to bloating / distension. This means your diaphragm can't expand due to volume of air.

Breathe through your nose only. Over breathing does not mean panic attack level hyperventilating.

I had something very similar. Kept feeling I couldn't get enough oxygen into my lungs, it was horrible. It was caused by over-breathing due to anxiety and developed into a full blown breathing pattern disorder and Panic Disorder. I eventually had a severe mental breakdown and had to see a respiratory physiotherapist in the end. Google the 'Buteyko Method' for exercises that help with the breathing. I still get it from time to time, but never as badly as the first time.

Weirdly, during this time I was also diagnosed with a very low ferritin count of 3.

I had what sounds like the same thing when I had a young toddler, and after a few tests ruled out any serious causes, that was put down to anxiety too.

At the time, I wasn't convinced because, although my toddler (about 15 months at the time) had cried almost all his waking hours during the day ever since he was about 3 weeks old, I didn't feel how I would have expected stress or anxiety to feel. Also, the breathing problems didn't coincide with any particular behaviour or activty. The trouble is, once they started, they frightened me enough to exacerbate the problem.

With hindsight I am 100% sure that the diagnosis was correct. Fortunately, my toddler changed completely over the following few months, and by the time he was 2, he had transformed into an easy, happy child and all my symptoms had faded away.

Over the years, stressful times have occasionally led to the breathing problems again ( and sometimes abdominal problems similar to those you described), but now that I recognise that they are stress-related, they don't worry me and they go again quite quickly .

I had no burning either, which is what threw me. My respiratory consultant was amazing as my asthma was a complete nightmare and said we will try to rule this out and wow the difference it made.

But heart flutters and tireness could be low iron/anaemia or thyroid?? Hope u get it sorted

I had this for many years, I didn't recognise it at the time but it was definitely anxiety. The yawning, the inability to get a deep breath. Stopped instantly when I left my stressful job.

I do have mild asthma and had severe covid. Those breathing difficulties were completely different.

Lots of folk getting dysfunctional breathing with long Covid too.
I think it sounds like low ferritin. Even if you have normal blood count you can still be symptomatic. Mine was 5 and I had palpitations, shortness of breath and a weird kind of anxiety.
Just ask your GP for vit b, ferritin and folate plus full blood count.
ps the yawning sounds like air hunger which is associated with anaemia.

Does it feel worse at certain times of the month? Just wondering if there is an estrogen element (I have a lung condition thought to be related to estrogen). If you had a girl too (sounds crazy I know) then you may have higher levels of estrogen circulating, the lungs are quite sensitive to this for some reason.

Meant to say push for spirometry and a CT scan if you feel it is getting worse.

I have anaemia which causes anxiety, shortness of breath amongst other things. I think to rule that out, I would ask to have your ferritin levels checked. At its worst mine was 3 and the absolute minimum it should be is 13. Mine was 17 when last checked at the start of this month after a very very heavy period, but I have had another very heavy period and am starting to get the symptoms again.
I hope you get to the bottom of it💐

@longtompot it really should be >50 despite what the internet says. Our doctors generally go off lower parameters than in Europe hence so many women in the UK being symptomatic with almost ‘normal’ levels.

Oh really? I'm just going by what it says on my blood test results which says the range is between 13.0-150.0 ug/L I am having a blood test tomorrow so will see if it has changed since the one I had at the start of this month. Do you have a link for this range, just in case it helps if my results are borderline to request an iron infusion.

@longtompot
Serum ferritin level is the biochemical test that most reliably correlates with relative total body iron stores. In all people, a serum ferritin level of less than 30 micrograms/L confirms the diagnosis of iron deficiency.
Nice guidelines 2023
I’ve seen it mentioned quite a few times on MN tbh. A few old threads say it too.

Did they do pulse oximetry? Or arterial blood? If the former then it’s not that accurate if you are black. Just posting this as I think it should be more widely known.

Pulse oximetry may overestimate O2 saturation, and this is possibly more pronounced in patients of Black ethnicity.

Hi everyone. Sorry I've not been able to get back to everyone yet, but am so grateful for all of your messages and your input. I got my ferritin checked and it turned out to be low, I'm not considered fully anaemic yet, but it's low so they've given me supplementary iron tablets to take twice daily. My full blood count is normal, so I'm very grateful for you guys telling me to check my ferritin as otherwise this would've been ignored for longer I imagine.
Thanks so much!

I'm so glad 😊 you got diagnosed correctly. Hope u get better soon. It only takes a week or 2 to feel better. Remember to check your B12 levels as well if u have low ferritin levels B12 may well be low.