When I was a little boy I was rushed to the hospital because I couldn't breathe well. I was in an oxygen tent for a few days and as it turns out I had allergies to smoke and dust. Since that diagnoses I was to recieve a allergy shot once a week and that lasted probably 10 years or so. Then the doctor told me I outgrew it and I didn't need the shot anymore..since then , an unfortunate cocaine problem that lasted way too long has made my heart a little screwed up. My left ventricle is slightly enlarged and I have trace regurgitation in 1 or 2 valves. I am on blood pressure meds and a water pill and no cocaine of course. Cut to the March this year and they find a 5mm nodule in my right lower lung during a ct scan..they say to take another ct in 6 months and my doctor doesn't think its anything more then scarring from either my horrible acid reflux issue or for some other reason but we need to watch it..now cut to mid june this year and the main gist of my issue , I wake up having a hard time breathing..my chest feels very tight and restricted when I try and take a deep breathe. I go to the emergency room and they do heart specific blood work and my pulmonary doctor happens to be there and gives me a steroid shot and from what I can tell it lifts the tightness from my chest after and hour or so and I can breathe better. I go to her office and she says it may be allergys or maybe asthma so she puts me on asthmanex and singulair and sends me for a blood allergy respitory profile. Before i even go for the test i end up in the ER again for the same reason..this time she gives me steroid pills and then puts me on Advair instead of asthmanex...I go for the test the other day , no results yet and yesterday..poof the whole day i have that same tightness and hard to breathe feeling which is way worse when i lay down..I have an appointment today in another hour..im hoping the allergy test gives me some definitive reasons and i go on an allergy shot..but if its not that what can it be? Why don't the inhalers work but the predisone does? I even have a nebulizer with med that i used last night but it does NOTHING TO open me up , same as with either of the inhalers she had given me..i am so scared I don't want to live like this , i want an answer. I pray my old allergys are the reason and i need the weekly shot again..could it also be my heart? I pass the enzyme tests in the er but could it be a blocked vessel thats restricting my breathing but not yet giving me heart damage? I am stumped. Please any ideas will be helpful.

Guess no one had any ideas..my problem is so bad I feel like I am going to die soon as there seems to be no easy answer , none of the inhalers work to make my lungs feel normal..nor does the nebulizer work at all. I seen the heart doctor and he told me my heart sounds good , my ekg is perfect , my echocardiogram from a few months ago is quite good now yet he is concerned about my breathing and also that my 64 slice CT scan showed a 200 calcium score and most of it in 1 main artery...he said if I don't get to the bottom of my lung issue soon as far as if its allergys or Asthma we should do the heart cath even though its always a slight risk but with my symptoms I need to be fully evaluated. So I made my next CT scan for tomorrow at 11 am and that will tell me if there is some other issues going on that an xray didn't see the 2 times I was in the ER or if there is any growth in that 5mm nodule..my luck it will be a few centimeters by now or there will be 5 of them now. No matter how that go's I have a mold test kit coming tomorrow tooo..and then on Friday I will make the decision no matter what my ct scan says on if I should also have the heart cath done as it could easily be a combo of things as I did abuse my body like an imbecile for so damn long. I hate myself so bad its not even funny.

I'm so sorry none of us had any suggestions and are just as stumped as you are. Hopefully you will get some answers soon and let us know how it turns out. Thinking good thoughts for you.

(p.s. many of us have played fast and loose with our lives and now live with the consequences. Cold comfort, huh)

Thanks for the reply , ya its a horrible thing. I can't believe what I did to myself. Just plain disregard for my body and future health. Just horrible , now to have to deal with it all is sobering and painful. I wish I could go back and stop myself. I deserve whatever I get , but if its truly going to be really bad I hope it isn't a long period of suffering...my life has kinda stunk for a few years now and if its also going to be full of pain and misery its not worth it. I shouldn't say that actually. I respect life , just maybe a little too late. This issue has me so screwed up but who knows..maybe it is my heart and can be fixed and I can learn from it and get some more years of enjoying being a clean liver and appreciating the world more..or it may be that my nodule is a big mass now and I also have some allergy with a heart issue as well and my chances to be here even a month from now will be poor. I hope to god its not that but starting tomorrow I will find out.

When I began reading your post, I immediately thought, "this has to be severe acid reflux" - then you mention that you have really bad reflux, so good! We're already on the right path.

As you probably know already, acid can cause erosions in the esophogous when it escapes the lower esophogeal spinchter muscle - this is typically known as the sensation called "heartburn".

But... when that same acid begins rising higher up the esophogous, it can actually damage the laryngeal and pharyngeal area (next to the throat). You can aspirate the acid into your lungs, causing asthma-like symptoms, and the mucous in your throat can also spread that acid all throughout your sinuses.
This type of reflux, when it causes problems in the upper esophogous is specifically called "laryngopharyngeal reflux". It is commonly known by its abbreviation, "LPR".

LPR is a serious and chronic condition - once you have it, it doesn't go away, but it's treatable. It is standard practice to treat LPR with a daily double dose of a PPI (proton pump inhibitor). Heartburn patients get a single dose of a PPI each day, but LPR patients have a worse time, and they must must must get 2 pills a day of the maximum dosage a pill comes in. For instance, Nexium comes in 20 mg and 40 mg sizes. An LPR patient would take 2 of the 40 mg pills each day. I kid you not. Go the acid reflux message board here and start reading about LPR.

These are your choices:
Nexium, 2x per day
Prevacid, 2x per day
Aciphex, 2x per day
Prilosec (BRAND) 2x per day.

Under no circumstances take Prilosec OTC. It may share the name "Prilosec" with the prescription-only medication, but it liscensed out to another company and according to myself, my doctor, and her entire practice, Prilosec OTC isn't working for her patients when they try it. Stick to the brand stuff, at least until you feel better. Then experiment all you want.

In the meantime, research the heck out of "laryngopharyngeal reflux". It seriously messes with lives, and disrupts the quality of life far more for most sufferers than mere heartburn.

p.s. A good friend (and long-time smoker) was dx'd with three nodules. It's been two years and the 5 mm nodule disappeared and the other two haven't grown at all.

I went for my CT scan today and also recieved the mold test kit. Of course the people at the lab were stone faced when I made a comment on clueing me in on the outcome of my CT. And I know for a fact my pulmonologist isn't in the office today so if it was bad she won't know till tomorrow. I hate waiting for bad news and hate it even more if its good news and i had to suffer for no reason lol. I can only hope it is. Ill be back with results of mold testing and ct scan as soon as possible.

Quick update , I got the results from my ct scan and they say they see no nodule at all anymore which is weird but im thankful.

I'm so happy for you; it had to be very scary.

Yes I was and still am scared. I am setting up an angiogram to check out my heart as I am still having these issues..knowing the nodule isn't there or at the very least didn't grow to monsterous size means I need to see why my chest still hurts so much and my breathing still stinks. I did use a mold test kit and a very small amount of mold showed up in the petrie dish after 96 hours but now I don't know what to do as we removed the rug and i bought a new bed and threw out my old mattress and bed and we dont see mold anywhere nor do we smell it. Theres no way we can just start ripping down walls and taking up floors..i just want to get a weekly allergy shot to combat any slight mold issue and I hope I can do this.