Short of breath - need help with diagnosis

My friend's symptoms were subtle, but being an athlete he knew that something was amiss. If you take the average sedentary person and lower their "lung function" by 10, 15 or 20%, it might easily go unnoticed. However, if you are an athlete; know your training; know your body and how it responds; and know what you should expect from training then you know when something was wrong.

With that being said, he had some coughing, some chest tightness, etc. - typical of the sarcoidosis symptoms, but his big indicator was that he noticed that his workouts were more difficult, his races times began to slow. He also did a fair amount of mountaineering, telemark skiing, etc. and noticed that he was really struggling when he was at high altitudes (11,000ft+) - despite doing similar training, living at a modest altitude (5500ft) and spending nearly every weekend in the mountains above 10,000ft.

Again, his symptoms were subtle enough that most people would likely not be tuned in enough to recognize that there was a major problem. At first he thought that he be developing asthma. Also, he is a bit of a geek, and I think that he might have actually had a lung function test from previous years ... you can get all sorts of sports performance testing done around here ... and when compared to previous years, it was obvious that something was wrong.

CO-Runner wrote:

he visited a number of doctors, then went to national jewish in denver and was diagnosed with sarcoidosis.

Bullcrap, jews aren't interested in curing disease, they only want to accumulate money.

CO-Runner-Do you remember how they ended up diagnosing him?

WyomingRunner wrote:

I live in a major city and most of the doctors I've seen are well established in their field.

You're allergic to doctors, and big cities.

I have this same problem and have done for years.

It is like you can't take a full breath at any time, and in a race breathing is slow and shallow when the pressure is on. I listen to the breathing of those around me and mine is much slower and laboured. A minute after the race breathing is much better but coughing is often bad.

I am even getting blood tests tomorrow but have previously seen specialist in asthma who have said it is bad breathing technique.

I googled sarcoidosis and notich rheumatism is a symptom. Over 20 years ago I had a bad bout of rheumatism for 18 months that required strong drugs that I was told if I had them then all my inflamation and pain would return. I went off them and was okay, but there is still residual pain and restricted wrist mobility.

Just prior to my rheumatism I ran very well but have struggled since.

I think I will be checking this sarcoidosis more closely.

thanks co runner

here is an additional ink to yours

http://www.geocities.com/hotsprings/villa/5056/sarc.html

Could sarcoidosis cause a swollen spleen? Cause I think i had mono but after reading up on this it kinda makes me wonder

Chase08 wrote:

Could sarcoidosis cause a swollen spleen? Cause I think i had mono but after reading up on this it kinda makes me wonder

looks like it

drooping on one side of the face is an indication

i have that too. it is mild but it is there.

I seem to recall that they did a lung biopsy on him to confirm the diagnosis.

WyomingRunner wrote:

CO-Runner-Do you remember how they ended up diagnosing him?

Stress

This could be a physcosomatic response to a minor problem.

I suffered eye problems and read up a \"Possible diagnosis\"

(the worst thing you can do by the way)I stumbeled upon Multiple Sclerosis Shit myself and convinced myself that i had it .

I ended up having a field of vison test and a Mri scan plus consultant fees (Total £2000) to find what they suspected origonaly ,migrane !!

You may be on a cycle of stress lack of breath stress lack of breath etc.

I do not mean to trivialse this problem but i feel you need to consider this before worrying yourself into a very real problem.

I had this too for about 6 months. A chest X-ray initially said pneumonia, but a later pulmonologist wasn't so sure -- it was taken right after running Boston, so she thought that post-marathon effects might have just looked like inflammation to the untrained eye. It just went away over the course of a couple of weeks. The duration kind of coincided with my wife being pregnant and then having our kid, so if I had to guess I would say that it was something psychosomatic (sympathetic pregnany or low grade panic attacks). But I also took a couple of months off around the time the kid was born, so it could also have been running-related.

(FYI: You said you had a CAT scan. That would pick up sarcoidosis.)

Hey

I think i have the exact same symptoms as you are describing, and have been struggling for a year with this problem.

I actually made another thread about it.. does this sound like you?

About a year ago, I got sick with what I thought was just a bad cold. This resulted in difficulty in breathing when running, which I thought would go away. A year later, I still have a lot of difficulty breathing both in running and doing everyday tasks. It feels like someone is pressing very hard on my chest, like on my breastbone and I can't take a deep breath in. The aching sometimes extends down into my ribs. I don't have any phelgm, no wheezing, nothing like that. I can't breathe hard when I run, i can only take shallow breaths or breathe a deep gasping/sighing type breath.

I have been to the doctor on several occasions, and they have pretty much ruled out asthma, since the albuterol (red, normal inhaler) doesnt do anything for me. I also take the advair purple disk, which seems to help, but not solve the problem.

I'm extremely frustrated, because like most runners, I have a high tolerance for pain and discomfort, but this has made running truly unenjoyable for me every time I set out. I've been able to maintain some level of training and competition, managing to post some ok times, but not without cost. It's my final collegiate cross country season, and I want to run well really badly.

I also got blood results and my chest xray back today. I'm not anemic, don't have lyme's and don't have a certain autoimmune disease that they were testing for. My chest xray came out alright as well.

Is it possible to suddenly develop a food or pollen type allergy? Is it possible to suddenly develop acid reflux disease? I'm not very familiar with these things, and thus I'm exploring these options. I have a pulminary function test in about a week and a half, but in the meantime, I've started taking prilosec; I figured I would give that a try.

Also of note is that the tightness very much seems to stem from right under my breastbone. When I try to run hard and push through the trouble, an aching will also seem to spread through my entire rib cage, making my ribs tender to touch. This could just be an aching from my lungs working too hard, though.

The doctor said that if I don't have asthma, vocal cord disfunction is a possibility.

ok so i know this is months later.. but did you ever figure out what was causing your trouble? i go to the pulminologist friday

You are suffering from the repurcussions of medical tests.