Squeezed
My story begins almost 2 years ago. I was having a feeling of fullness and tightness around the chest and rib cage and I thought I was just full from lunch. When in fact I had been not eating as much lunch as I could have or should have.
Getting diagnosed
Initially diagnosed with IBS
So after about a year of going through this I went to my doctor and they gave me a quick exam and told me that I had irritable bowel syndrome. Okay, I'm not a doctor, so I went with that.
The COPD diagnosis came a year later
Then about a year later I went back to the doctor and I demanded that they do an x-ray. I knew there was something wrong I just didn't know what and at this point I'm starting to get breathless upon even walking up a flight of stairs. It was just getting harder and harder. Then I got the call that I needed to go in and talk to the doctor about my x-ray. That's when I learned that I had COPD emphysema with hyperinflation.
Wondering what comes next
Since then it's been a kind of a nightmare. I have been on oxygen back and forth. I have been a hospitalized twice in a year but I think the worst part is the squeezing that I feel the tightness around the rib cage. I don't have the coughing that everyone else seems to have but it's obvious by breathing is not right at all.
So I'm wondering will there come a time when I start to cough a lot? Or am I a different kind of case. I don't know, I'm really frustrated and I don't know where else to turn. It seems like I get so many answers from so many people, but nothing makes sense to me.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Glenda
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