COPD and abdominal bloating

Climbing stairs is NOT minimal activity for us COPDers. There are days when just standing in front of the kitchen sink washing dishes, or the bathroom sink while scraping my face, is as strenuous as I can go. Other days I can literally walk around the house without my hose for a bit with no adverse effects. Every day is a little different. I have good breathing days and bad ones. Even though I am mostly confined indoors, the weather has a lot of influence. So does how I slept last night, and how well my body did with the NIV machine while I slept. It is different for each of us, but I think what we experience gives us much in common a lot of the time. My lungs no longer expel C02 like they did long ago when they were healthy. That bloated feeling is the C02 buildup being retained in my lungs, preventing me from having room for more 02. The worse off I am, the more I must focus on exhaling over inhaling. The breathing exercises we learn in rehab are for exactly this purpose. Other issues add to the problem for me too, such as gravity surges (!!!), pigging out at lunch, head congestion, allergies, and on and on. Luckily, I have no stairs to contend with, because my disability makes me pretty much a flat-earther. I never really had a mild progression - my COPD went from pretty much barely noticeable to extreme pretty much overnight. I never liked stairs anyway, which I knew well from a lifetime of climbing in and out of my big truck. Nowadays I have to mind what I do every day in great detail. I have to be careful not to have foods that cause inflammation, and that's just one example. Still, with all I have learned to do, with my diet, my breathing, etc., there is only so much it helps, and what is left is diminished capacity that I just have to live with and adapt to. I once had a whole awesome plan for my retirement, and this ain't it. But nope. No garden, no working in my shop, no fishing, no going to concerts. Heck, I can't hardly even go outside anymore. All I can do is remember to breathe in for a count of 4, then exhale for twice as long, and see what that allows me in life.

Hi , and welcome! I see you are a new member here, having joined just yesterday, late last night. We are glad to see you already engaging with the community through this, your first post.
I also see that our good community members, and @CopdGirl, have already responded by sharing their own personal experiences with you regarding COPD and bloating. Should you be interested in reading more about bloating and COPD, we have several articles, published right here on COPD.net, which speak to this concern. For your convenience, here is a link to that material: https://copd.net/search?s=bloating. I do hope you find the information is helpful in a practical way.
Wishing you well,
Leon (site moderator COPD.net)

CopdGirl
I'm the same the bloating sometimes occurs wen I'm just moving about its hard to tell if it's copd or my IBS M at the moment im having more pain with my hemroids than my copd.