Einatmen... Ausatmen...

Lately, I have been having trouble breathing. I feel like I cannot take in a full breath, and that my lungs, ribs and chest do not fully expand.  The anxiety this feeling causes makes me hyperventilate, taking in shallow fast breaths which makes it worse. I then try and control this, relaxing myself and my thoughts and taking deep long breaths -- the way I learned it in yoga classes. Inhaling deeply, I send the air into my belly, then up into my chest, fill my lungs, and expand my ribs.  Exhaling completely, I pull in my stomach and wring out all the remaining air.  I concentrate on doing this for a few breaths and that makes me feel better.

I am worried that the cause of this difficulty in breathing could be one of the serious things that are mentioned in the medical articles I looked up in the internet -- among which are allergies, asthma, thyroid problems, heart problems, pulmonary problems. 

Today, I finally went to a doctor to get to the bottom of this.  She listened to my breathing with a stethoscope -- my back and my chest, then said that seemed okay, but ordered more tests to eliminate other possible problems. I had an allergy test, an EKG, a pulmonary test, and a blood test.  The first three tests did not show anything significantly wrong and I am still to wait for the blood test results.

I then mentioned to the doctor that I also had numbness radiating down my arms to my hands and said it was possibly carpal tunnel. Then she said that maybe I had some tensions in my neck and body that could also affect my breathing. She felt my neck and detected a lot of hardness there and decided to give me acupuncture.

First, my neck and parts of my spine area were massaged, then the doctor scraped a little instrument down my back and when I felt pain, I had to shout out. The doctor then stuck in little needles embedded in plaster at these points. She said to leave it until they fall off.

I am now walking around with little needles stuck in my back.   Hope that works!!!