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[Jeanjt]

Need some advise lung X-ray no dirrerent than a year ago so why when I gave up smoking 6 months ago I am struggling more now to breath than then and how can I stop recurring panic attacks

[stone-UK]

Hi

That six months of smoking would not have helped yout lungs, its good that you have final given up. It will take a few more months before your lungs are clear of all the gunk.

With your panic attacks speak to your GP, although there are breathing exercises that you can do. You may need medication. The panic attacks could be part of you breathing problem.

It can be a slow and sometimes scary process until you come to terms with the condition.

Have you been offered pulmonary rehablitation, a one hour exercise and one hour education which will improve you quality of live and give you a better understanding of your condition and how to cope.

[Jeanjt in reply to stone-UK]

Yes thankyou have to start p r again as was ill have just been put on higher dose of sertraline but told may take a month to work

[Jeanjt in reply to stone-UK]

I gave up smoking 6 months ago that is why I was wondering why breathing getting worse not better

[Watfordgirl]

Hi jeanjt, stone is right.

If you haven't been to rehab has anyone shown you breathing exercises? Breathe deeply (like a drag on a cig) through your nose if you can then blow out slowly through pursed lips (blowing a candle out).

Go to you tube. There are lots of good breathing exercises there. Speak to your GP and tell him your worries. Then come back and tell us how it's going.

This is common. Try not to worry too much.

Sue x

[Buzzman]

By fare stone you have done the best thing and stopped smoking it's hard for the first 2 years. And yes go to a rehab course you will learn a lot on how to use you Medes excise etc I gave up,smoking 11 years ago best thing. And if you suffer chest infections ask doctors for rescue pack to keep at home and dirt is good to change there is lots of natural foods to help,with your lungs doctors won't tell you this. I was having chest infection once a month but since I changed my dirt a year ago I have not had a chest infection hope this helps

[Jeanjt in reply to Buzzman]

Thankyou for reply

[jackdup in reply to Buzzman]

What do you mean when you say you changed your dirt and no longer get infections?

Thank you

[bobwells]

Hello from the States, I gave up smoking about 3 years before my lungs finally had too much. Though my sense of taste and smell returned nicely (not really a lung thing), I never regained a lot of breath in the following 3 years. The smoking thing is only part of the pollution intake. Our air is messed up. Even "pleasantly" scented things are mostly synthetically produced and not so good for our lungs. My rule here is that if it is not a real natural scent...avoid it at all costs. This includes "unscented" items too, as cover-up scents/chemicals just "unscent" many perfumes. I never did any lung testing until after my lungs crashed, but we did find that many perfumes caused an immediate bronchial closure effect cutting FVC & FEV1 reads quickly. O2 drops could go 20% down in under a minute and take hours to recover from. Although I now have about 60% lung capacity (also living at 4,500 feet in the Sierra Mountain area), the idea that a real sense of full breath is not in the cards. Your anxiety issue is something I appreciate. For my first few months of lung "rehab", I would push exercise to the limits of breath and when I ran out I'd stare the anxiety down by taking a couple of minutes to breath it back up. Sometimes it took ten minutes, but I slowly realized I was only fighting the anxiety...and that I wasn't really going to run out of breath. I would also put on a finger oxcimeter and concentrate on my numbers (which is an intentional distraction by the way). Usually, I'd initially tick down from low 80's into high 70's or so, but with "big" breaths, I'd see a turn around in ten to twenty seconds and make a game of seeing just how high I could go. In the early weeks, I could get a 90 to maybe 92, and a year later I could breathe it up to 95%. After a couple of years I became very good at pacing my working limits that crashing was rare...and recoverable in 20-30 seconds. My recent start on overnight O2 has moved my stable daytime O2 (unassisted) to 93-94. At will, I can breath my O2 to 97, but it takes about a minute. Great exercise for the lungs, however.

So, my main point is you have to confront the anxiety and breath through it. Let those close to you understand what it is you're doing when you're trying to breathe back up. My wife would be more worried that I, so I explained every sensation as I had them. She became instrumental in educating others that would see me crash...allowing them to better understand what was happening in on of those moments. Soon, my friends were also helping me beat the anxiety "beast". I suggest using a "distracting" finger oxcimeter as it helps you put your mind in a more proactive state. Anxiety is a huge factor when you feel like you're suffocating. We feel so helpless. Most of us know exactly how bad it gets. I'd wager that a big portion of us would agree that this single subject is one of our most important "first steps". Normal may never return really, but regaining confidence will keep you out of the anxiety trap and you will feel closer to normal. Once you've put a leash on the thing, you'll gain some humor too. Being able to find humor in my condition was an immense step. I lived a very polluted 52 years before my lung crash, and now I have to laugh at how ignorant I had been. At 58, I'm enjoying the idea that maybe some of my experience can help others. I'm not certain of your types of lung damage, but anxiety seems to be a common ordeal. Eat good clean foods and exercise as hard as you can, too!

[Jeanjt in reply to bobwells]

Thankyou so much for alll the info