I am a 41 year old male, non smoker. I have had an achy chest pain that has continued for about 3 years. I have been mildly short of breath the last three years but assumed I might be getting in slightly worse shape. This last week things hit super hard, I could barely walk to the kitchen without gasping for air and having to spend 15 minutes recovering. Short shallow breathes is all I can take. It hurts bad to take deep breathes in. I feel like I am on deaths door. 3 weeks ago I was running down the beach with my 5 year old daughter playing in the waves. This weekend I was a complete wreck and almost unfunctional.
-I just found out recently my grandpa, dad, and uncle all died from an inherited "alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency"
-at one point a few years back I had a kidney stone removed and they had found a few lung nodes on the CT scan. I thought maybe lung cancer had been the chest pain, had an extra X-ray a few months later but the doctor at time said nothing of concern.
It gets worse with acid reflux
And halls have helped a bit;)
I feel a touch better today and have been given a 14 day ventilator, have also gone for blood work and X-ray with a great family doctor that is on top of things.
Might have COPD? Cancer?
I was under the impression copd was more of a slowly progressing problem, and have been completely taken by surprise with going from doing decent to on deaths door in a weekend is there something I may be missing?