Sudden inability to breathe

[Biggsy]

I've had these attacks for a few years.  What is going on?

It happens occasionally after momentarily choking on a bit of food or drink, or sometimes when eating/drinking strong stuff (eg honey).  After a normal cough and splutter to clear the airway of any foreign matter, I find it impossible to breath in without a great deal of effort, and then only intake a small amount of air with a whooping noise, at best.

It's as frightening as hell.  I've learnt to return to normal by relaxing my diaphragm.  It doesn't last for more than a minute (except for the first time when it lasted over two minutes without being able to breath at all and I thought I was going to die).

It happened once in hospital after a stomach operation as I brought up some acid.  (The stomach or acid isn't relevant other than it's just what happened to trigger the attack that time.  I don't get acid reflux now).  A nurse, after confirming my airway was clear, said "spasm of the esophagus".  But I'm not sure this is a correct or complete diagnosis as I don't breath through my esophagus, do I?

I've never mentioned it to a doctor as it's been getting less frequent and severe and I have a coping technique, but I'm worried again other another bad attack just before I started writing this.

I don't suffer from asthma or any other known relevant conditions.  It started before I was taking any medication.  Thanks for any info/thoughts apart from "Go and see a doctor, you silly fool!". 

[mrcharly-YHT]

Could easily be just what nurse said.

My breathing problems were due to inflammation of esophagus. Bloody terrifying when it happens; unable to breath, instantly break into massive sweat, faint, blood pressure either going through the roof or the floor (not sure which, lol) and nearly passing out on the spot.

But

"Go and see a doctor you silly fool"

[vorsprung]

I had a touch of this last week

I put it down to having a couple of glasses of wine and then going out to try out the time trial bike without warming up first.  I had to lie on the floor for about an hour

[hellymedic]

I wonder if it's your larynx (voice box) going into spasm. This certainly would cause a whoop.
The function of the larynx is to protect the lungs from inhaling crap and drowning you. Vocalisation is a secondary matter.
Seems your vocal cords have over-reacted.
I don't know any answers, apart from avoiding provocation.

[Kim]

Gallstones?

My initial symptoms were of being sharply winded.  As I presented with "difficulty breathing, but not like an asthma attack - and no, this isn't a panic attack" but had normal BP and O2 sat, and didn't make enough fuss about pain^[1] it was mis-diagnosed as a) a panic attack and b) bad posture  by a succession of disinterested medics.

Just a thought.


_{[1] The consultant later said I should have been screaming.  Now I know.}

[Chris S]

It sounds like something I get sometimes - usually as a result of something complete trivial like a bit of spit going down the wrong way. Everything seems to seize up, and you can only drag air in with great concentration and a bit of a whoop. Getting air back out again requires a cough, and more concentration. All this is accompanied by streaming eyes, sweats and a general panicky demeanour.

Last time it happened to me was about a week ago at the dinner table at fboab's - needless to say they all fell about laughing  .

[jogler]

As part of scuba diving 1st Aid we were taught this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valsalva_maneuver

I not sure it's relevant but as said above you would be wise to at least discuss your symptons with your doctor.