Stuff in my lung?

[Cat-a-Tonic]

This is weird, and I have no idea whether it's related to IBD or is something completely separate. A few weeks ago, I noticed that it felt like there was stuff (feels like mucus but not sure) in my right lung. When I breathe in deeply, it kind of gurgles in the bottom of my lung. I think it's in my lung anyway, not quite sure of that either! It's hard to describe. I don't feel the urge to cough although I do make myself cough to try to expel whatever it is. I haven't coughed up anything. The feeling lasted about a week and then went away. I thought it was just a fluke, but now it's back again and I've felt that same "gurgly stuff in the bottom of my right lung" feeling for the past few days. I don't have a cold, I'm not coughing and when I do make myself cough, again nothing comes up.

I remember a friend of mine once said that when she had pneumonia, it felt like she had stuff in her lungs. And I know there's a such thing as walking pneumonia which I believe is where you have pneumonia without feeling very ill (?). Would that go away and come back a few weeks later though? And would it just be in one lung? It's only the right side of my chest that feels like this. I googled and couldn't find anything that really fits what this feels like. I've never had pneumonia but I think I'd be at least a little bit ill if I had walking pneumonia. I feel great aside from this weird lung thing! It's not really bothering me much but it's weird and I don't know what it is so I thought I'd ask. Anybody have any idea what this could be?

 

[mickey]

Pneumonia is going around. Best to have it checked out. Can be weakening you now, so catch it before it gets into a bad virus. Feel better!

 

[Ducey99]

I'm not sure if it's the answer you're looking for, but it could be pretty much anything under the sun. If it starts bothering you (..persists or becomes bothersome, advise i've come to loathe ) though go see your Dr. and get him/her to have a listen with a steth and they should be able to detect anything out of the ordinary.
You may have sucked in a small piece of food, or a particularly large piece of dust really. Your lungs are gonna produce flem/mucus/fluid whenever there is an invader of any kind, so the re-occurance could be coincidence, or the culprit may not have truly been gone.
No shortness-of-breath, no dizziness, no fever or anything like that says to me not to worry too much.

 

[David]

Get it checked out Cat.

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Mickey, how would I know if it's pneumonia? Would the doctor just listen to my lungs and be able to tell from that? What differentiates pneumonia from just stuff in my lung? And pneumonia would probably affect both lungs, not just one - right? I honestly don't know myself but I would think if it's pneumonia I'd at least be a little ill? And, it wouldn't go away and then come back if it were pneumonia - or would it? Sorry for all the questions, I just wish I could figure this out!

Ducey, definitely no shortness of breath - I ran for 5 minutes on the treadmill on Wednesday and I'm going to try for 6 minutes today. No fever nor dizziness either, I've been sleeping well and my IBD is in remission and I've been exercising regularly and feel really good aside from this little lung thing. Now that you mention it, it could be dust I suppose. My brother just moved out of my house last weekend and I've spent the past few days cleaning his old room and turning it back into a guest bedroom. My bro lived with us for a year and a half and he clearly didn't clean during his time in my home so I did a lot of cleaning and I'm sure that kicked lots of dust and pet hair/dander etc. into the air. That wouldn't explain the first occurrence of this, though, as it started when my bro was still living in my house. I wasn't doing any heavy cleaning around that time.

David, I have a GP appointment for my yearly physical exam set up next week anyway so I'll mention it to him then and see what he thinks. And if it gets worse or changes or anything like that then I'll of course go in sooner than that apppointment.

The only other thing I can think of is GERD - but that's been really well controlled lately. Back when it wasn't well controlled, I'd sometimes get awful rib/lung-area pains, and those were on both sides of my chest. I thought for awhile it might be costochondritis but it didn't hurt worse when I pushed on the painful areas. When I got my GERD under better control, those pains stopped. I think I must have been aspirating a bit of acid reflux into my lungs in my sleep or something like that. But this doesn't feel at all like those pains so I don't think this is related to GERD. This isn't painful at all, it just feels like... stuff!

 

[DustyKat]

Even atypical (walking) pneumonia tends to produce some sort of symptoms, just not those you would expect with a lung infection, like a cough, sputum production, SOB etc. Rather you may have a headache, general aches, that sort of thing BUT fever should be a sign of both, even a one off fever.

Pneumonia can affect one or both lungs and normally starts in the lower (bottom) lobe. Typical pneumonia can be picked up by the doctor using his stethoscope as they won't hear air passing into that area. Also when they percuss your back (when they tap their fingers) it will sound different. A chest X-Ray will show it if there is doubt.

I'm sure stranger things than being totally asymptomatic have happened so as you have said, if anything changes or you do develop new/worsening symptoms go and see the doc.

Thinking of you, :heart:
Dusty. xxxxxxxx

 

[fosterschick]

defo get it checked out cat-a-tonic as i had it full blown but it came one over two days , just knocked me for six , its tooks weeks and lots of meds to get better , i felt like that days before xx

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

I just got back from the gym - noticed something interesting! After doing my jog on the treadmill, my lung felt normal. No feeling like there's stuff in it and no gurgling feeling when I took a deep breath! I am guessing that jogging might have loosened up whatever was in my lung, don't really know though. My lungs felt normal throughout the rest of my workout too (weight lifting, stretching, exercise bike, and a bit of walking to cool down). Now that I'm done with my workout I can slowly feel that "stuff in my lung" feeling coming back so I am guessing the stuff is settling back down in the bottom of my lung again.

Fosters, I'm sorry to hear you had full-blown pneumonia. It sounds like yours came on pretty quickly though. I am guessing that if I was going to get full-blown pneumonia, it would have happened by now? This feeling of stuff in my lung came on a few weeks ago, lasted a week, went away, and then came back a few days ago.

Dusty, I don't have anything you mentioned. I had a barometric pressure headache the other day due to a storm rolling through, but there's another storm going on here right now and I don't have a headache at all right now (it was a rain storm the other day and I always get barometric pressure headaches from rain storms - this storm today is a snow storm and I sometimes do and sometimes don't get barometric pressure headaches from snow storms). No aches, no pains, no fever, my energy is good, I just exercised for an hour and feel great! Appetite is good, sinuses are fine, no cough, this weird lung feeling is literally my ONLY symptom! I know it's very weird. I'm hoping Ducey was right and it's just some stubborn dust or something that got in there and maybe irritated my lung or caused a little mucus to collect, something like that.

 

[DustyKat]

Just thinking out loud here Cat...

Running on a treadmill may well have a similar effect to percussing the lung, so loosen up any consolidation that may be there. If you can't cough anything up then it will just resettle when you stop.

If you were aspirating that can also cause what is called aspiration pneumonia. It's still pneumonia though.

Just be sure to keep on top of it.

Dusty. xxxxxxxx

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

I will, Dusty. Even if it doesn't get worse, I will have my GP listen to my lungs at my appointment on Tuesday. I have "stuff in lung?" written down on my list of things to ask my GP about. And if it does get worse or change I'll go get it looked at sooner, I think urgent care is open on the weekends or I'll go to the ER if worse comes to worse.

As for the aspiration, I haven't had that GERD-aspiration pain in my lungs in a few months. I switched from Prilosec (Omeprazole) to Nexium (Esomeprazole) which made a world of difference and my GERD hardly ever acts up anymore, and when it does it's much milder than it was before. I switched to Nexium about 2 months ago and this lung-stuff only started a few weeks ago, so I don't believe the aspiration and this are related. I could be wrong but it sure feels like 2 completely different things.

I'm guessing you're probably right about the treadmill. It does feel like the stuff is settling back down. I kind of wish I could cough this stuff up - that's honestly the most worrying part about this, that there seems to be stuff in my lung and I'm NOT coughing!

 

[Astra]

Hiya Cat

This bloke in work has the same thing, his 'gurgle' is caused by mould spores in his house!
At first they thought he'd inhaled some plaster whilst decorating.
Hope you find the cause, but get it checked xxx

 

[DustyKat]

Unfortunately not everyone coughs with pneumonia and I don't think it is related to aspiration either.

You are one wicked smart lady Cat so I know you will do what you need to do.

Dusty. :heart:

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Joan, interesting! My house was built in the 1950s so it's an older house and very possible there's mold. In fact we do get a little bit of mold in the bathroom from time to time because there's no fan in there so the moisture just stays in there, it's got nowhere to go. (Bathroom remodel will hopefully happen relatively soon and a fan is in the plans.) I usually just scrub the mold off when it appears. I haven't seen mold in the bathroom in a little while but just because I don't see it doesn't mean it isn't there. I'll scrub things down with bleach in there this weekend just in case it is the culprit! I don't suppose your co-worker mentioned anything about his lung issue going away and then coming back like mine did?

 

[Astra]

I'll quiz him some more on Monday Cat and let you know.
I have mould too in my hall, and the man who came to service my boiler last week said I needed a de-humidifier cos who ever did the cavity wall insullation many years ago before I bought it, blocked up the airvents, thus causing moisture = mould!
And I'm bleach scrubbing this weekend too on my mould!
good luck xxx

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

We have a dehumidifier but don't usually use it during the winter as the air is already really dry. We do use it in the summer though as it gets very humid here during the summer. My bathroom is really small, a regular dehumidifier wouldn't fit in there. I wonder if there's a small/tabletop size dehumidifier available that I could fit on my bathroom counter? I know I've seen small tabletop humidifiers but not sure about dehumidifiers. Hm, I'm going to have to look around!

Good luck with your scrubbing!

 

[mickey]

If you can not find a dehumidifier, take a small fan and leave it on high for about 20 min after you shower. That will also help dry it out.

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

I think this might be allergies - and it also seems that it's not my house that's causing it! The lung thing, that was going on as I was at work last week Friday. My nose was also itching more and more as the day went on. I went home and spent most of my weekend at home - no lung issues nor nose itching the entire weekend. Now it's Monday, I'm back at work, my nose has been itching all day and my lung is a bit iffy again (although not like it was on Friday). I went to the gym during my lunch and I usually jog 4 or 5 minutes to warm up - today I could barely do 2 minutes and was exhausted. Not sure if that's related or not, but at any rate I'm definitely noticing more lung and nose itching issues when I'm at work. Is it a springtime thing? It's nearly spring here so that could be it. Maybe there's some allergens being kicked up by the industrial ventilation system at work? It could still be mold, again maybe kicked up by the ventilation system. I don't know. I have sporadic seasonal allergies (although the usual symptoms are itchy eyes and drippy nose, not lung issues) so I'm going to try taking a Claritin before I get to work and see if that helps any.

 

[DustyKat]

It certainly sounds like it could be an allergy. Keep us posted on how you go having taken a Claritin. Good luck!

Dusty. xxx

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Thanks Dusty. I took a Claritin this morning and noticed a change for the better - no more itchy nose or weird lung feeling! So I am guessing it must be allergies and I will keep taking Claritin as needed. I saw my GP today as well and he listened to my lungs and didn't hear anything amiss so I will continue with the assumption that this is allergies. If it comes back in spite of Claritin or anything like that, I will of course get my lungs checked again.

 

[DustyKat]

Yay for allergies! Sheesh, I never thought I would say that! :lol:

I do hope though that is what it is Cat.

Dusty. xxx

 

[Mountaingem]

Good Lord Cat-tough week for the both of you! Try some Mucinex, it helps thin out the mucous and allows you to cough it up.

 

[Cat-a-Tonic]

Thanks Jeannette, I think I have some generic Mucinex at home, I'll try taking it with my Claritin tomorrow. I plan to hit the gym tomorrow so hopefully my lungs/allergies won't stop me from doing a proper jog on the treadmill!

 

[DustyKat]

Good luck!...:goodluck:

Dusty.