I know that no one can diagnose an injury over the internet, but I often see threads asking for advice on a million different injuries/ailments.
Of course, if something is wrong or something hurts then you should go to a doctor and get it checked out, but I think it can helpful (especially in the case of people without health insurance who cannot afford to keep going to doctor after doctor until they get to the one who finds the real problem) to get input from others who may have had similar experiences or injuries.
Pain is a funny thing, and sometimes it can be hard to tell if it is something you should try to work through or something for which you should get help immediately. I know there are alot of people on here more knowledgeable (and helpful?) than me who can offer guidance as far as self treatments to try and what type of treatment to seek (BBB comes to mind).
I started this so I could ask my own question, but anyone is welcome to post their own.
Me: It started a couple of weeks back, I woke up one day feeling kind of short of breath. The feeling grew worse over a few days–it’s almost as if someone is pressing on my chest when I try to breathe. The best I can describe it is that it feels like I’m unable to expand my lungs to capacity, like something is stopping it.
While sitting there and trying to take slow, deep breaths I realized that I am unable to breathe into my stomach (if that makes sense). Like…you know how you can breathe into your chest, where your shoulders rise and your abs kind of go in? That’s the only way I can breathe now. If I try to relax and breathe into my stomach with my diaphragm, basically nothing happens–I feel like I simply CAN’T do it.
I went to the doctor and he did x-rays and found nothing, so he put me on albuterol. I thought this was dumb considering this problem happened SUDDENLY and I’ve never had asthma or breathing problems before. also, he didn’t even test me for lung capacity or anything.
The first thing I thought of was that it is a hiatus hernia (based on what I know about the ailment), because since it happened I’ve also been getting unexplainable mild heartburn. Anyway, I shelled out all this money for the doctor for him to basically tell me he didn’t find anything wrong and to come back in a few weeks if the problem doesn’t go away.
I’m finding myself breathing so hard during my workouts that my ribs and abs are sore from it.
Any guidance is GREATLY appreciated.