rib cage

[darceynjo]

Hi, can anybody please tell me why sometimes my lungs feel too big to fit inside my rib cage, this often happens to me and I find it very uncomfortable, oh I have COPD thanks for any help

Julia x

[Hidden]

Hello Julia,

I think that it may be the result of the air that is being trapped in your lungs, if you do suffer from COPD that it, as emphysema is one of the diseases that falls under the umbrella term COPD, emphysema comes from Greek and means trapped air

[From New Latin, from Greek emphusema, a swelling up, from emphusan to inflate, from phusan to blow]

What i found works for me, especially if out of breath, is not to think in terms of inhaling or getting air in, but of concentrating on exhaling or getting air out. When you focus on getting as much air out as possible you automatically make it easier to draw air in.

Each individual suffers with emphysema in a different way, some people retain more of the gasses that need to be expelled than another person does.

Your posture and concentrating on maintaining a good posture, may help you too, so do not slouch but sit upright so that you release pressure on your diaphragm: the diaphragm is the muscular partition that separates the abdominal and thoracic cavities.

A technique I sometimes use, is one that is centred on not thinking in terms of equal time spend inhaling and exhaling but rather where the you count for instance to 3 breathing in and 5 breathing out, because it is the air being caught in the lungs that causes breathlessness.

You can experiment by counting differently until you feel it helps you, like breathing in for 2 seconds and 3 out for seconds.

[darceynjo in reply to Hidden]

Hi TJohn, Thankyou for that I will try them out and thanks once again x

[Eviex in reply to darceynjo]

Thanks for this TJohn, will try that..

[libbygood]

This used to happen to me occasionally, plus rib pain. I have been doing lung exercises and stretching exercises following a video by Donna Wilson (just google lung exercises donna Wilson), I only do the diaphragm strengthening, breathing and lung/leg exercises plus stretching so only takes about 10 mins and I know the routine off by heart now, since doing these exercises I havn't had any rib pain or the feeling that my lungs are too big for my rib cage.

Libby

[timber]

I sometimes get this problem,but usually after a severe coughing bout,my excellent GP tells me that it is possible to actually fracture a rib whilst coughing.

Woody

[mackem]

Hi Julie sorry my reply is a bit late I to have trouble like this especially when i wake I say it is like having an elephant sat on my chest had it many years but just been diagnosed with copd also get pain which start in my shoulder blades come round the front and go down my arms awful so painful dont know what to do with myself does anyone else get this also have trouble eating feel as though food wont go down and can not breath but food is stuck once again awful as passing out feeling had this a long time too but docs just look at me as though I am stupid

[darceynjo]

Hi Mackem, I sometimes feel that way and for a few years now I have been seeing a docter about these shoulder and arm pains, I had a mild TIA about 18th monthes ago he keeps telling me thats theres nothing wrong, but now i have COPD they are saying that these are related to to my lung problem, until then I thought I was going mad and wasting peoples time. Sometimes it hurts to eat so I dont bother (I know thats wrong, but I feel as if I spend most of my time at the docs) so your not alone Julia