Gasping for air at night!

[irridium]

Only 2 weeks ago, I had a cold and cough where at night I woke myself not being able to breathe properly. It was short breaths and hard wheezing in between and this carried on for about 4 minutes. It was as though I couldn't breathe in/out properly. I really felt desperate and felt like going to A&E, but knew I was in no fit state to get dressed, let alone getting an Uber there.

Went to the GP 2 days later, who couldn't diagnose me, saying I should have gone to A&E. I asked for the possibility of an inhaler but he refused, so I had to vocally demonstrate how I was breathing that night. I got the inhaler after all.

I've had this experience before for a couple of episodes in lockdown when I'd experienced anxiety and the GP stated it was due to anxiety. (I'd also had chest pains related to this too.)

I've checked the net for possible reasons and it's brought up a number of conditions but it's best left well alone and get a GP to properly diagnose me.
Has anyone gone through this before? It's really scary that it could happen again. (ATM, I'm not going through any stresses in my life. I'm overweight though by about 3st. with high cholesterol and don't exercise.)

The fact the breathlessness happened at the same time as the cold & the cough, in my opinion, this link is quite important. I don't see what role anxiety would play, where a cold & a cough exist. Especially during a pandemic caused by a virus known for causing breathlessness. In my opinion the virus causing the cold was a lot more important & should be ruled out first or at the very least should be a cause of concern, especially where cough is a symptom too. Cough, cold symptoms, breathlessness: aren't these the symptoms affecting millions/billions of people worldwide in the last 4 years, for which the first step should be to rule out covid/long covid.

Didn't WHO say 4 years ago: that where there are unsual symptoms , covid should be taken into account, covid/long covid should be ruled out first?

@ForRoseExpert I first had it during lockdown in 2020 and 2 more times that year. I caught covid in 2022 and in 2023. My symptoms were not as severe as others have had it and as I WFH, it was manageable.

I've not heard of this being a symptom of long covid so it was surprising to read that. I'm not sure how to deal with this should this happen again. I'll certainly try and record it so that the GP would have a better idea of a diagnosing it.

I'm afraid I get this too and it is completely anxiety or stress related for me. Even when no obvious trigger. It did start after I had COVID though and I wonder about some mind body interaction.

We've all had this as a family and it's been awful, after seeing 3 different GPs over a month or so we finally got diagnosed with whopping cough!

We all have inhalers now, none of us have ever had asthma

Have you ever practiced breathwork? Do you breathe out of your mouth or nose? What is the quality of your breath?

Sometimes we get into really bad habits and need to relearn how to breathe properly.

Diagnosed after a month? Diagnosed with whooping cough with a test? Considering how symptoms can be similar to other conditions. https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/whooping-cough/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20378978

I assume it is even harder to diagnose if episodes are random. Hopefully, it will stop. I was just curious how the doctor didn't link the cold to the breathing problem, considering they happened together. Even if you went to A&E and the episode didn't repeat, what good would that be? I hope you won't have them anymore. Did these episodes only happen while asleep?

I have a few thoughts. Were you chesty at the time - with a phlegmy cough? If you've got a chest infection, when you lay flat the congestion (phlegm) can "pool" in your lungs due to being still and flat, and this could have caused the sudden inability to breathe / gasping for air until you could sit up and shift the phlegm by coughing. Wheezing can be caused by phlegm too and also by inflamed lungs if you've got a cough/ infection - so it could have just been that. I have worked in respiratory wards and one of the key things for lots of respiratory problems was basic positioning in bed and making sure people were sat up a bit to help chest drainage.

The other thing that sprung to mind was heartburn. Doesn't sound likely in your case to be fair, However when I was pregnant I had awful heartburn and it did actually result in me waking up struggling to breathe at night - think acid had risen so high up it went right up into my oesophagus and I was basically choking on it and woke up in a panic each time! Prescription medication helped.

Finally, have you considered sleep apnea?

If you're asleep and woken up by this, I don't see how it can be anxiety tbh... Don't let your GP fob you off!

The locum GP was useless as he said I should have gone to A&E to find anything residual left. I didn't go in the end as it was too much to consider when I couldn't breathe. I thought what use I would be if I presented on a Saturday night 4am and having to wait hours potentially to be seen, by then the incident had finished hours before.

@Alittlebitwary I do have terrible coughs normally after a cold which can linger for weeks and they worsen at night when I'm trying to sleep. (I sleep on my side). Also, I'm on quetiapine and the side effect of that helps me to sleep usually (sometimes, it doesn't work and I have to take a zopliclone). The coughs can start dry, then it progresses to a nasty phlemgy kind that's opaque green. After trying the usual cough syrups on the market that are pretty useless (usually one bottle a day and I try another brand), but it makes me think I'm doing something to remedy it, but it doesn't. This winter, I've been ill with colds/coughs about 3 times, so it's not normally this bad. I do prescribe to the notion that cow's milk (bananas and potatoes too, so they say) may worsen mucus production, so I don't drink it and have very little diary in my diet.

I assume you are right, when you feel so unwell and know that by the time you get seen by a doctor, the episode will be long gone.... If you had so many colds, did they check your lungs, their function or your immunity to understand why you have so many colds? https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/spirometry/about/pac-20385201#:~:text=Overview,other%20conditions%20that%20affect%20breathing. Spirometry is for chronic lung conditions, it doesn't mean it is required in your situation, it might just be useful for you to think of what questions to ask if unwell in the future

@ForRoseExpert The locum GP ruled out anything wrong with my lungs, but they didn't test me on an asthma breathing thing to taste my lung capacity. When I'm with a cold I do tend to have a slight wheezing sound when I'm breathing.

Having checked up sleep apnea, I don't have most of the symptoms. I don't think I snore as I've never been told by anyone I did last time I had a partner 4 years ago.

@Alittlebitwary I definitely don't have heartburn as I'd remember from the time when I was heavily pregnant many, many moons ago. I can suffer very occasionally from acid reflux.