Many times shortness of breath is caused by an "overload" of carbon dioxide trapped in the damaged tissue of your lungs.The trick I have learned is to force myself to exhale as much as possible, then take in a deep breath. It's not easy to exhale when your brain is screaming "inhale! you're dying!" After two bouts of severe SOB and hospitalizations with this problem, I have learned to force myself to exhale. It really helps.

We seem to share the pretty same similarities....For years after going thru rehab I believed that "no pain no gain". Pushed myself on the treadmill and @exercises way beyond what was comfortable. No one ever mentioned that I could be doing my heart an injustice..

Believing my heart muscles would be stronger with the @exercise it was not till my SOB made a turn for the worse, I found out my much prided high saturation in the 96-98% were also dependent on my heart being able to cope with what the lungs could no longer do and that was a sole reliance on PLB. and ended up on NIV Bi-Pap.....

Spoke to my GP n she said there was no point seeing a cardio as i have no symptoms like chest pain to warrant a review for referral...My Echo was defined as no serious issues that revealed only 0.9 Nodular Focus or possible Mucous Plugging or Carcinoid Tumour, Trachea extended but Pleural Spaces are clear and no Pneumothorax, to be reviewed in 4 months.

All my EKG's n ECG's were fine as well......With the high pulse rate she said it was expected at my stage of COPD and were not exceptionally high considering......so a resting pulse around 115 is ''fine''......Im not too sure about that ha.....bad enough it hovers around 135 when out walking with oxygen..which is now a catch 22..

Now I find out my oxymeter is giving inaccurate readings because of non-pulsatile blood. Poor perfusion may lead to an erratic waveform, so no way except having ABG's can help me monitor keeping my oxygen sats between 88 -92% at rest at room temperature and only used my portable when on the move......but after 2 months my old high saturation has returned but my SOB is much worse now...Guess my heart must be on triple time and nothing i can do bout that....Beta Blockers are not advisable in my situation.....

So got another Oxygen Assessment again in Jan, as my last one I managed the 6MWT without it dropping below 94% even though I had to stop 3 times totally exhausted.......So had to return my concentrator but seeing my new pulmo is also the State Assessor and might have ''Shares'' in the Oxygen Supply Company that has the Australia wide contract, he said I could keep the portable cylinders till we check in again in Jan...

So the point of this exceptionally long book is maybe you have a retention problem even with high sats and the heart compensating will definitely cause you to get more n more SOB...

@A MyCOPDTeam Member I had forgotten to mentioned this in my first post but, two times I went into the hospital with a high heart rate once at 126 and once at 115 both times they gave me fluids in my veins that brought it back to normal both times I was dehydrated and did not realize, then just last night it got up to 110 and in a 2 hour period I drank both water and cucumber water a total of 48 ounces and it started dropping within the first hour by the second hour it was back to normal. Once again I am not sure of your case but I thought it was worth mentioning. I had talked with my pulmonary Dr today about it and he said that can happen with me needing to work harder breathing.

Mentioned Users

A MyCOPDT...

I do as long as I'm sitting I am fine but what kind of life is this

@A MyCOPDTeam Member yes they say that but I have a very serious case of emphysema and the steam seems to help me open up and breath I just do not use it very long and only right after getting in the shower it may not be a good idea but it works for me and I still breath good.

Mentioned Users

A MyCOPDT...