Hello, Doctor, recently I wake up a few times a night scared, breathless, then I cough - I end up sleeping in a sitting position, sometimes I manage to fall asleep on my side, but then I have the impression as if the oppression in the right side. I have no fever or low-grade fever, and I don't smoke. I went to the internist, the lung X-ray is supposed to be clean, I got mild medications to calm down - I take them for a month, there is no change. I am more and more tired of constantly not getting enough sleep, besides, I am starting to fear that it is something serious - but would you not be able to see something on the X-ray then? I am asking for advice on what it may be, where and to whom to go. I live near Olsztyn, I'm 36 years old.
Your symptoms may indicate various problems, the first of which is the possibility of asthma symptoms, i.e. bronchospasm under the influence of some irritating factors such as dust, feathers, etc. We should start with spirometry - pulmonary function test, and then consider skin allergy tests. There is usually nothing in the chest X-ray, because it is a functional disease. The symptoms you have presented do not suggest that you may have breathing disorders during sleep, but if the above-mentioned tests do not show anything, you can consider testing for this. Coughing at night can also be caused by reflux - it would be good for the ENT specialist to examine you and find out if there are any signs of reflux on the mucosa. If so, treatment with proton pump inhibitors (prazoles) should be started. This is what I would advise at the beginning. Regards
Remember that our expert's answer is informative and will not replace a visit to the doctor.
Monika Paulina Kuźmińska, MD, PhDDr. Monika Paulina Kuźmińska, MD, internist, specialist in lung diseases, member of the European Respiratory Society and the Polish Sleep Research Society.
For several years he has been dealing with the issues of breathing disorders during sleep, with particular emphasis on obstructive apnea. He assesses polysomnographic tests in several centers diagnosing breathing disorders during sleep in Warsaw.
In 2013, she defended her doctoral dissertation on: Breathing disorders during sleep in adults, taking into account the impact of weight reduction on the indicators of polysomnography.
Diagnoses, consults and healsconservatively of patients diagnosed with obstructive apnea syndrome at the Prof. In Orłowski, he cooperates with the Otorhinolaryngology Clinic of the Medical University of Warsaw at the Czerniakowski Hospital in Warsaw.
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