Suggest Treatment For Shortness Of Breath And Weakness

Posted on Wed, 29 Jun 2016

Question: I have been suffering from shortness of breath, weakness in my thighs and arms, and my heart beats as if I was performing cardiovascular exercise. This began happening around 4 years ago, but not too bad; however, now it seems to be with me every day and occurs after minor exercise like carrying my tool bag and equipment 50 or so feet. It was really severe last Friday morning and I could barely get out of bed. I ended up sleeping for 20 hours. Felt very weak. My wife says I look pale.

Answered by Dr. Ivo Ditah (3 hours later)

Brief Answer:
See a Rheumatologist!

Detailed Answer:
Hi and thank you so much for this query.

I have reviewed your information fully and this is possibly suggestive of a muscle problem. With you reporting arm and hip weakens soon after doing minor work, it could very much fall into a class of pathologies referred to as myositis. I will suggest you see a rheumatologist for this. After a careful examination and possibly laboratory investigations, there would be more information to work with. If these fail to show any specific disease, at that time we can turn to investigating the heart as a possible cause of these symptoms. However, am going with a rheumatologist first.

I hope this helps. I wish you well. Feel free to ask for more information and clarifications if need be.

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar