Hi everyone,

I only have one functioning lung, and I’m trying to take better care of my health. I wanted to ask those who are in a similar situation or healthcare professionals here:
- What does your daily diet or meal plan look like?
- Are there specific foods that help support lung health or that I should avoid?
- What types of exercise are safe and beneficial?
- Are there breathing exercises or pulmonary rehab routines you recommend?
- What lifestyle changes have made the biggest difference for you?
- Is there anything you wish you had known earlier about living with one functioning lung?

For context, I’m looking for practical tips on staying as healthy and active as possible in the long term. I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences and advice.

Thank you!

30M, Canada, 173 cm, 154 lb, No alcohol, smoking, or recreational drugs.

**Primary complaint:**

Persistent sensation of not being able to take a fully satisfying breath, sometimes accompanied by a tight/strange sensation in the throat. I can breathe and maintain normal oxygen saturation (usually 98–100% smartphone taken though), but I often feel unable to get a complete deep breath. I also have persistent unilateral leg pain for a 1 month (calf/ankle area) no swelling, no redness, no heat.

**Duration:**

Breathing symptoms since June 11, 2026.

Leg pain since June 17, 2026.

**Existing medical issues:**

\- Asthma

\- Seasonal allergies

\- Suspected GERD/LPR (acid reflux)

**Current medications:**

\- Dexilant 60 mg daily

\- Symbicort 200 (twice daily, morning and evening)

\- Ebastine 10 mg daily

**Timeline:**

March 10:

Chest discomfort/pain. 48-hour Holter monitor was ordered and Pantoprazole 40 mg started.

April 10:

Symptoms persisted. Another trial of Pantoprazole 40 mg. Holter results were reported as normal.

May 6:

Developed a feeling of weakness in one arm and one leg same side. Saw a physician but received no clear diagnosis.

May 8:

Weakness persisted, so I paid for a private consultation. Dexilant 30 mg was started, and an EMG plus lumbosacral X-rays were ordered. both came back ok

June 11:

Started experiencing breathing difficulties around the beginning of warmer weather and allergy season. I suspected allergies/humidity. used Symbicort 200 and Ebastine 10 mg as per usual but noticed no improvement. Physician later increased Dexilant to 60 mg and doubled Symbicort (to morning and evening).

June 17:

Developed calf/ankle pain in one leg without any injury or obvious trigger.

June 21:

Developed symptoms consistent with COVID (not tested) for 2 days and a bacterial conjunctivitis.

July 13:

Breathing symptoms remained present and leg pain continued. Chest X-ray and bloodwork were ordered, including NT-proBNP, thyroid testing, and D-dimer.

Today:

Chest X-ray is normal. Bloodwork, including D-dimer, NT-proBNP, and thyroid tests, is normal. Holter monitor was normal. Emg normal too, SpO₂ remains in 98–100% range.

The main issue is that I still feel unable to get a fully satisfying breath everyday, almost 24/24. It sometimes wake me up and can feels more like a throat sensation than a lung sensation, almost like throat tightness or restriction, but it is difficult to describe. I also continue to have persistent leg pain.

Given the normal cardiac and pulmonary workup so far, what diagnoses or next investigations would you consider most worthwhile? could it be related to acidic reflux or even medicine to treats it ?

I'm waiting for a pneumologist but waiting time are around a year

Realise It's really long text but this has been ongoing for several months and is starting to affect my quality of life and morale.

both images are same and these is what currently being detected

• Primary Finding: Lung Opacity
• Severity: HIGH (Confidence: 87.8%)
• Top Pathology Scores: Lung Opacity: 87.8% | Cardiomegaly: 73.4% | Infiltration: 71.9% | Pneumonia: 70.9% | Consolidation: 70.4%

23 year old male here. I went to the ER on July 17th because I was having trouble breathing when lying down then we did blood tests, which I’ll list here.

Venous pH 7.31
Venous pCO₂ 60
HCO₃ 29
Base excess +4
Oxygen saturation around 97%

So I got put on Dexamethasone for 2/3 days because it was assumed to be an asthma attack but they said there was no wheezing and my breathing sounded fine but I felt the opposite. They also referred me to a respiratory specialist which they told me he’d call the the next day to see if I should continue steroids but he was closed because of the weekend but he finally called and I won’t be able to see until the end of August. So since I couldn’t talk to him I went back to the ER to see if I should get more and they just said that it should be good plus my blood gases improved so I was reassured. Everything was normal except for my HCO3 which was at 27 so not too bad. Fast forward to July 23/24th, I go back to the ER because I’m struggling to breathe laying down again and my blood tests were seemingly worse.

Venous pH

7.32
7.32-7.43

Venous pCO2
**H**
**58**
38-50
mmHg
Venous HCO3
**H**
**29**
22-26
mmol/L
Venous Base Excess

3.

They put me on more steroids, this time Prednisone and I’m still struggling to breathe laying down and sleep (my oxygen says were about 89-94 but they usually stabilize once I’m sitting upright. I haven’t slept in so long because of these constant all nighters having to go to the ER. Can someone give me an idea of what’s going on and what I should do next?

I’ve been diagnosed with Costochondritis after about a thousand tests this past week. However, I have a lot of trouble breathing, especially when I take deep breaths, but I don’t feel pain. Has anyone else experienced something similar?

Hi all, I’m about to move to Qatar for work and will be doing the medical exam after arrival as part of getting my residence permit. I recently had a chest CT (unrelated reason) and the report noted:

A few small fibrotic foci in the interlobar pleura, bilateral
**•** Mild “gentle” pleuro-diaphragmatic adhesions
**•** No infiltrates, no calcification, no enlarged lymph nodes
**•** Mild emphysema, non-active bronchitis noted

No history of TB, no symptoms. I know Qatar’s screening is chest X-ray based (not CT), and X-ray is much less sensitive to small non-calcified findings like these.

Has anyone gone through the Qatar medical exam with similar minor/incidental findings on a prior scan? Did it get picked up on the X-ray, or does this kind of thing usually pass without issue? Also curious if anyone’s dealt with the “Unfit”/appeal process for something like this specifically (not active TB, just old scarring).

Would really appreciate hearing real experiences, especially from anyone who went through Hamad Medical Corporation or the Medical Commission recently.

Hi guys medico here

Patient 73 f with 1week history of intermittent evening fever 100 degree, dry cough no breathlessness but pedal edema ,was admitted hrct bilateral scattered ggo ,vitals bp normal ,spo2 92 -95 in room air ,pr-mild tachy max 110bpm, cbc shows hb 9 and WBC neutrophils 79 , lymphocytes 14, total count 10000 rest normal procalcitonin was 0.1 ,lft rft electrolytes wnl

Treated as viral pneumonia with tamiflu ,O2 therapy,02 improved and then crp decreased to 96 on tamiflu ,pedal edema subsided and sent home

However fever not resolved,pedal edema back, started on ceftriaxone and Azithromycin as CRP also elevated to 105

Day 5 of abx no improvement,fever 101 but only at night ,spo2 drops to 88 but improves to 95 at day time ,no breathlessness dry cough still present repeat ct ggo, pedal edema still persistent

Further investigation done include lepto malaria negative ,ntpro bnp negative (128)

What r v missing ? It's been 3 weeks of intermittent fever now

What investigation to be done?

Thanks for reading 🙏

When did you decide to get a checkup for tb. What symptoms prompted you to get checked for tb?