Question: I don’t know if you can help at all, but I thought I might ask anyway. I need a little insight as to where they are going with this. I’m being bounced around to a couple of different specialists.

I've been having breathing problems and chest pain on my right side under my clavicle and above my breast. The pain started about a month ago. It is always in the same place. They gave me an X-ray and an EKG and the x-ray only showed peribronchial cuffing. So I got the Albuterol and they sent me on my way with possible bronchitis. I have chronic bronchitis, so it made sense. I wasn’t really coughing though and it just seemed a lot different than usual.

A few days later I got a horrible ear ache and my doctor started treating me for allergies. Everything seemed to get better with exception to the breathing and chest pain. We went to the mountains and I walked down to a waterfall. I was so short of breath. I was huffing and puffing and I thought I was going to pass out right there. Then it got worse with little things. By the time I got to the doctor on Monday I was short of breath just walking into the office.

They gave me a breathing treatment and then walked me around the office. My O2 saturation went down from 97 or 98 to 94 and my heart rate shot up over 120. It was a leisurely walk down four hallways. So they were worried about a pulmonary embolism. My d-dimer was fine, though and so the insurance company wouldn’t approve a CT.

Eventually I got a CT in the ER after my doctor sent me there since I was having tremors and weakness in my right arm (a side effect of Albuterol I found out later, thanks Doc!). I was put on Methyprednisolone and sent home. Things got better and so my doctor decided to switch me to Prednisone. I got some numbness in my chin and lips and they quickly took me off of it. The night my doctor told me to go to the ER he also called in a cardiology referral. In the ER my heart rate was anywhere from 95 to 120.

I was referred earlier to an allergist and finally had my appointment after that. In my lung function test the FEV1/FVC came back at 75%. She gave me a breathing treatment and there was little improvement. So she concludes I don't have asthma. But I am having other allergy issues and she wants me to come back and get tested. She suggested it was either collapsed vocal cords or cardio related.

The cardiologist called for the appointment today and I will see them next week. I was originally having heart palpitations and issues with a racing heart. I was on a holter monitor, but didn’t experience any palpitations for a few days and got frustrated with having to wear it all the time, so I turned it back in and decided it was stress (which it still could be, right?)

I just feel like this is all a waste of time and money and I am EXHAUSTED! Am I wrong? Should I even bother seeing the cardiologist?

I am currently still having trouble breathing, chest pain, fatigue and have had heart palpitations today.