Question: Hello Doctor,

First I think it would be wise to start off this question with a list of my symptoms that I have been having on a regular basis.

Symptoms:
1. Shortness of breath constantly through out the day (Having to try and take deep breaths like I am hasping for air to catch it but they get cut off which makes me feel like my lungs are not fully expanding)
2. Sometimes my lower part of the stomach feels hyper-inflated.
3. My nose always feels blocked and congested even though its not.

I thought I would share with you a little about myself to help you understand my situation a bit better. I am originally from xxxxxxxxx, xxxxxxxx before to moving to XXXXXXX about three years ago. At the time I was living in New York I have never had any medical problems or even had any issues with breathing. Then I moved to XXXXXXX and graduated from the fire academy and start working as a Firefighter full-time. Once I started working Full-Time with the fire department is when I started running into these breathing problems. Ive seen my regular physician doctor who can not help come up with some sort of diagnoses to my problem and I have seen two different Pulmonary doctors who also can not pin point my problem. I did also see a cardiologist at on point also who choose not to want to run any tests on me cause he didn't think it was needed.

Tests that I have had done:
1. Pulmonary Function Test
2. Spirometry
3. Blood Test
4. Chest X-Ray (According to Doctors was normal)
5. EKG (According to Doctor was normal)
6. Alpha 1 Gene Test (Normal)
7. Allergy Test
Will upload all these tests to you.

Family Medical History:
1. Congestive Heart Failure
2. Anxiety
3. Allergies
4. Diabietes
5. Hypertension
6. Alzheimer's

I know at the fire stations I am currently stationed at we have a lot of dust,mildew, mold and asbestos everywhere due to it being a very old fire station and unfortunately the city I work in is a poor city and is very poorly kept upkeep. I just recently found out that a majority of homes have asbestos in it too.

Yesterday I went to go see my pulmonary doctor to share with him my allergy results and I did ask him if we could run a CT scan and a lung diffusion test on me which he neglected to do so cause he did not believe it was necessary and he did tell me that even if we find some sort of scarring in your lungs it wouldn't even matter. I did show him my spirometry results from the allergist and he said they are fairly normal and I asked him what does family normal mean and he went on to say that you are within 80% of your normal limits but its odd to see someone your age not having majority of your results in the 100% and higher which made me nervous cause that makes me think I might be coming down with early lung disease. He did want me to come back six months from yesterdays appointment to set up a Pulmonary function test which i did too see if there is any huge difference in results.

The drugs I have received from the allergist are recent but I have yet to take any cause I am nervous that since I don't have many symptoms that I would get addicted to them and it would mess up my body and it makes me nervous to take them. The only one I have taken is the nasal spray but my nose hasn't been congested enough for the spray, only feels congested.

Medical history for me:
1. Non-Smoker (Never been one) But Have been around second hand smoke
2. Never did any drugs
3. I am a fitness XXXXXXX and I work out 6 times a week and meal prep my food.

Doctor please let me know if you need any additional information in case I left anything out.

Hello again Dr. Jnikolla,

I did want to say that I wanted to keep our old discussion so I didn't have to create a new one cause I did not intend on making you think I disliked your medical advice or I was searching for someone else cause that was not the case. The discussion just closed and I was unable to reply back to you after seeing the doctors. I looked on your profile as well and was unable to find anything to private message you or send you an email or anything.

Well Doctor I am not here to lie to you when I say that I only started the allergy medications yesterday and during that day Im going to be honest in saying I didn't notice a huge difference in my symptoms but Im not going to stop taking the pills. I will finish the medications and the nasal spray as it was prescribed and see how it works.

I know the ENT Doctor did want me to come back in after I finish the medications to get a CT scan of my nose cause after looking in side of it he said I had some hole or deviated part in my nose that was normal due to a lot of the population having it but its not normal to have if you know what he means by that. The allergist also wanted to perform Immunotherapy for my allergies which they intend on giving me a shot every visit or every appointment that I needed to come in and I wouldn't mind doing that but honestly I just can't cause its to expensive and me starting nursing school in a month won't be able to afford that treatment since each shot costs money.

Yes my Pulmonary doctor did want to do a follow up in six months which I intend on doing and I agree with him that this would be the best route. The only thing that concerns me is when he said my results are fairly normal or within normal limits. I asked him what he meant by that and he went on to explain that my results are not as good as I would expect for someone your age but they are within normal limits. That concerned me but he is the doctor and I have to follow his judgement. Just honestly annoys me cause I feel like working at this fire department is slowing killing my lungs and Im a sitting duck but thats life I guess.

Hello Dr. Jolanda,

Firstly thank you again for responding back to my previous post and responding back in such a quick time.

I completely agree with you about switching my workplace/job. The only thing about switching jobs is that one I would be giving up my health insurance and retirement plan as of right now even though I was not planning on staying at this place in the first place once I graduate from Nursing school.

Its hard to leave my job especially due to my parents not wanting me too and they don't understand my situation.

Yes Doctor I am doing the treatment right now and sticking with it until the medications runs out but honestly I have no noticed any difference in my symptoms. I did notice that the wheezing in my nose is getting more annoying and worse in my opinion but theres nothing I can do. I guess the real reason why I'm getting so annoyed over this is cause I take such good care of myself by meal prepping healthy food week by week and working out while taking a Fish oil, Multi-vitamin and Vitamin C supplement daily.