tired09

Hello, I have been having this off and on for a while but now it is worse than ever.

I cough up light brown string like flecks in my sputum (sputum is VERY clear and not tinged in anyway). The light brown strings are pretty much their own entity in the sputum and are always cylidrical in shape. their lenght at most get to MAYBE 1/4 of an in. When it dries it looks like 'polloution' is what one DR said (looks VERY different dried - almost a black clolor). It is NOT dark brown like blood and the last DR to see a dried sample says it does not look like dried blood. Sometimes when it dries some look like hair (not my hair color though) but very stiff hair, otherwise looks like dirty snot when dries (from other peoples opinion). The real kicker here is how they are floating in the sputum w/o coloring it and even if there are 50 different 'strings' they are separated.

I test only with a light obstruction similar in those with asthma (spirometry). I never had asmtha before this all started (in my late twenties now early thirties). I have had x-rays upon x-rays. Shortness of breath, sometimes for no reason (I am not overweight), random bouts of light headedness but blood oxygen shows fine when hooked up to monitor. This will come on even during the happiest of moments when it is furthest from my mind or in the middle of talking with clients and or friends on phone while driving! I have been told it is stress but having giving up and tried the stress medicine; the symptoms still exist even while on the med (which I of course took myself off of after giving ample time per DR). Now it has progressed to 3-5 hours of sleep a night at MAX. I can't take a day off so light headedness during day / driving is getting dangerous. Chest wall hurting in various spots only on left side as well now (sometimes knots that come and go sometimes fleshly lumps on top of muslce that comes and go sometimes just VERY sore spot inbetween ribs again various places on left side). This has been progressing for 2 months now.

I can not stress enough how it does not color the sputum in any way, even sputum directly surrounding each 'string'. The only other physical symptoms that seem to deal with this is tightness in my left breastbone (left bronchial area) which has been consistent for more than a few years. EKG and Xrays show normal, I do have GERD so Dr's say that is a contributing factor (I have tried new medicine, diet change, bed elevation, etc).