I am seeing a new pulmonologist in March.

[murielm99]

I hope this one will believe me when I say, "I can't breathe."

My shortness of breath is frightening. I had a small amount of this before covid, but I could manage. Two weeks after I had covid, this started, and it has only gotten worse. It had been going on and getting worse since the third week of August.

[XanaDUer2]

1. Good

Hope you get more help.

[cyclonefence]

2. Unrequested advice

and I hate it when people do this to me. I've had bronchietasis since age 18 and am currently trying to recover from empyema, so I've got the creds. Please forgive me.

If your new pulmonologist isn't able to help you, consider seeing a cardiologist. Much of my inability to breathe now is due to my heart's failure to get enough O2 to my pulmonary artery. My blood O2 can be at 95, and I can't breathe.

[CrispyQ]

3. Oh man, I feel for you!

I've had shortness of breath before getting my arrythmia under control & it's scary, even with my oximeter telling me my O2 level was 97%. You haven't said what you have & haven't done but I have a few suggestions for you to consider.

1. Like the poster above said, get your heart checked out if you haven't already.
2. Get your name on the cancellation list at your new pulmonologist. Would a call from your primary doctor get you moved up in the appt book? Ask them & find out.
3. Relax & distract. Your brain is not your friend. Occupy it so you don't focus just on your breath.
4. CBC oil has helped me immensely when I'm really stressing. Get the oil with an eye dropper so you can deposit it right under your tongue. CBD is good too but for some reason for me, CBC really helps mental anxiety.

Oh man! I hope you can get in sooner & get this resolved. It is scary AF.

[Lulu KC]

4. Yes! The heart!

I'm turning into a bit of an evangelist on this. My husband had shortness of breath. I thought, "Oh, this seems like pneumonia." We went to the ER when he had difficulty swimming to side of pool one day (former triathlete). He's not overweight, no high BP or cholesterol, exercises regularly, does all the right things and doesn't look the type. (Unlike more "voluptuous" people--where they take one look at you and say, "Lose weight" if you have a hangnail, but I digress.) And they did an EKG and we're talking afib that had probably been there for over a year and worn his heart out. No one ever thought to do an EKG and I can remember several situations where this could have been caught if someone had thought holistically instead of within their specialty. Just an EKG shows a lot, then when they go in a do the deeper imaging the connection between the heart and lungs is pronounced. Not to mention heart and brain, and emotions and heart. It's all connected, and that is so obvious to me, but I can't believe how many doctors are now telling me that like, "Whoda thunk it?"

IN ANY CASE, good luck on finding a doctor who believes you, who hears you. It is gold.