Someone stole my oxygen

Right, here's an odd one. I don't think anyone had similar experiences, but it's worth a shot.

I had a first asthma attack in July last year and have been fine every since, doing a lot of rather hard sport and having a good time. These last two weeks I had a rather annoying cold that has moved down to my throat/lungs now. Three nights ago I woke up in the middle of the night and had slight difficulty breathing. Took my emergency meds, which didn't help too much, but I fell asleep again. Was slightly out of breath the following day. Next night same story, only worse. Got the nebulizer out which also didn't help too much. All of yesterday morning I felt out of breath. During the nights and yesterday I felt like someone stole some oxygen from the air and not as if my lung volume was restricted. I had a blood test yesterday morning as I'm fighting with some other issues and multiple mineral/vitamin-deficiencies. I'd stopped taking all supplements about a week ago for that blood test.

Yesterday at noon I took my vitamin B12 shot and iron pills again. And guess what: a while later I could breathe normally again. Yes, I know you need both for red blood cells, but surely it cannot be more than a coincidence. I don't think both can have such immediate effect on oxygen transport both when stopping and taking them again, right?

Note: I am very slightly asthmatic which I only notice when walking around too fast, but I guess that it's either due to the cold or from the more difficult breathing, but that is manageable with the emergency meds.

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I can sympathise with the stolen air feeling, although not related to stopping/taking medication. Its usually as my asthma is starting to play up that I feel as though im breathing but there's no oxygen there.

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Thanks a lot Butterfly!

So this might have be the early sign of another attack then? if so then I'm probably lucky as I'm absolutely fine again today.

One thing I noticed taking meds again: I'm dropping weight again, and all the weight I've lost from the first attack didn't come back. Hm... should be careful that I don't get too thin.

Second thing: argh! And here I was hoping that attack in July was just a one-off.

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Hopefully you'll have managed to head of another attack if you're feeling better today.

With regards to loosing weight, could there be something else going on too? Maybe you should check with your gp?

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Butterfly,

yes, I'm working on it. I think there is something else going on, of which the asthma might even just be a symptom. That's why I had the blood test done. I'm just hoping I'll find a doctor this time who actually feels like finding out what is going on instead of just saying: ""that blood test we did was fine, you're healthy. Go talk to a psychologist."" Annoyingly, this same doctor did miss a glaringly obvious pernicious anemia. In case you're wondering: I did work in a blood lab in the past before I decided to study something completely different. *sigh* being an expat is all nice, but ending up in a country where doctors are pretty much all expats and seriously underpaid, hence very unmotivated is annoying.

Hmm.. I was feeling out of oxygen again when I woke up, and the B12 shot again fixed the problem. That's strange.

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Oh dear, yes I can sympathise with that too, you know your body and when it isn't working correctly but sometimes doctors are so driven by 'normal' results. I am suffering with hypothyroidism symptoms, wad hyperthyroid the other year, and was over medicated so i know what it feels like. My bloods however are 'within normal range' so am fine apparently so I just have to live with it. The same with that though, kept getting told I wad fine, that my extremely fast heart rate had nothing to do with hyperthyroidism until I ended up in a&e 'very poorly' as the endo put it. Grr.

I'm not an expat though so don't have the added complication of underpaid & under motivated doctors! Keep at them ....you know best.

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Theophylline is known to deplete the vitamin B6 levels in the body. Plenty of articles on the internet.