Shortness of breath after stopping smoking

well done you keep at it. I've been off the cigs for 15days now would have been 28 but on day 13 had a cig as my poor cat had to be PTS. But like you I too am breathless horrible feeling. Glad though to read it's something others have so Im going to hold on I also have an underactive thyroide I nthink that too might make me breathless Anyway zgood luck to anyone coming off the cigs

thank you for this post it's inspired me to keep trying

Congratulations! Don't beat yourself up for the one relapse. I take care of dogs, cats, and horses for a living, and understand the stress that comes with losing a pet. What is your age, and how many pack years did you smoke? I would like to compare stories, as I too am worried about my thyroid.

I've been smoke free for 20 months after smoking for 35 years. I quit without planning as I became very ill with a lung infection. That was the brick in the head moment. It has been a long road with many of the first months experiencing SOB. Triggers lasted about 18 months with each passing month a little less. I can honestly say, I only think about it now a few times a week and only for a moment. When I see people smoke, I feel sad for them knowing how much it damages the body. My lungs will never be well, but I am better now. Three months ago I was diagnosed with Autoimmune Hypotyroid disease also known as Hashimoto’s. I asked the Endrocronologist if this could have started when I had the lung infection and she did say it was very possible as I never really felt myself after that experience. So quit or stay quit. If you lose your health, you really lose the ability to experience life. Enjoy your new freedom from smoking and be proud. Quiting smoking is one of the hardest accomplishments of my life.

KD - congratulations on quitting! You have been quit long enough now that you've added years to your life, and life to your years. The information out there on what to expect when you quit smoking is VERY sparse. The emphasis is on quitting, which I totally support, but so few resources exist on the health challenges quitting brings. All of us want to keep in touch about your treatment for SOB and Hashimoto's.

Same Here NICKI_35 I myself have been smoking for near 30 years / I recently Quit with help of the Patch Last Month. Today is October 27,2012. / I am now 27 Days Smoke-Free. I Been Having Shortness Of Breath at Very Odd Moments.. When I Am Sit Still / Walking / In The Store Walking / Etc Etc.. Is This Part Of Quitting Them Dirty Nasty Cigarettes.?

Ron, Nicki, and everyone... I am glad we are all smober. Whatever we face as a result of not smoking, its better than anything that comes WITH smoking. I, too, have SOB and chest pain, but getting better. Smober about 1 yr after smoking 12+.

Yes Masonhorse. Very Good Point On The Benefits Of NOT Smoking. Sorry to hear you have Chest Pain and SOB. / However, I would hope that you visited a Doctor about Chest Pain. Chest Pain can come from many things, Cardiac Related being the most serious. The SOB is what I Don't understand / Heck, I thought I'd Feel and Breathe Easier near 30 Days of being smoke free. None The Less, I Agree with 'Smoke Free' / I Enjoyed Smoking Very Much, Matter Of Fact I Used to Have Ashtray Next To The Computer Where I Sit Typing This Reply.. I Forced Myself To Quit, Knowing That I Been Smoking Too Too Long and Nothing Good Was Gonna Come Out Of Smoking Marlboro Lights. / I Said Enough I Suppose. WOW.. Sorry for a Long Reply Masonhorse..! Peace..:)

Hello Everyone - I am a 65 yr old English woman who stopped smoking in mid-February 2012 after having a cold which turned into a nasty chest infection. (8+ months ago - it's 29 Oct.2012 today). I go through most of each day able to shake off the odd - dozen times or so? - wish/crave for a cigarette. However, during the evenings I find that the craving is far stronger & find myself nibbling on nuts and chocolate - as a kind of substitute or distraction.... I smoked for 50 years - beginning as a kid smoking the illicit cigarette behind the bicycle shed with my class-mates (we were girls in a Convent School!!) Thereafter smoked all my life, and in the last couple of decades smoked 60 cigarettes per day. Despite a 'smoker's cough' in the last few years, I still walk/ed for 1 hour+ with my dogs every day. Every May each year I took part in a 28 mile charity walk without any problems - in fact, although several thousand people do this annual walk, I always aimed, and succeeded, in being, amongst the first 60 to cross the Finish Line. So - obviously no problems in the 'lung department' ! Right up until recently..... For the first one/two weeks after ceasing smoking I coughed at least as much as if still smoking, especially on exertion. After those 1-2 weeks, I had virtually no coughing at all. I discovered my singing voice again!! (I was in the 'Nine Voice Choir' at school). Amazing that my voice recovered and I could hit high notes again! I sang around the house for the fun of it! However, by as early as April 2012, just 2 months after quitting smoking, I found that I was panting & needing more air when climbing quite small inclines when walking my dogs - inclines which I hadn't even noticed were inclines until now. By June I began to realize that muscular aches & pains, which I'd hitherto attributed to 'getting older' over the previous couple of years or more, were becoming MUCH MORE severe. Terribly SEVERE. The muscular pains centred around my neck, shoulders, hips, thighs, buttocks and, latterly, the fronts of my legs - outer shin areas. I was extremely low in energy and needed to sleep for a couple of hours every mid-afternoon. I had awful muscular pains and also slight temperatures/fevers in the evenings. I might have assumed that this was part of *Getting Older* - except that it had all happened rather suddenly AFTER GIVING UP SMOKING and that, giving up smoking, instead of improving my health had coincided with a drastic deterioration of my health. everything in your body. After many tests, including lung function tests, X-ray, CT scan, and many, many blood tests over the months, it seems that I may have, (yet to be definitively diagnosed), a *Rheumatoid-type* illness combined with mild/moderate emphysema. There is no proper diagnosis as yet – although it is now 29th October 2012 and I first consulted a Doctor in February 2012. Presumably, since stopping smoking my emphysema has not progressed – so why am I so much more breathless? Within a few months I cannot climb the stairs without hanging onto the banisters & hauling myself up – panting for breath at the half-turn on the staircase.. I had always understood that emphysema STOPS progressing when one stops smoking. As far as I am aware, despite my smoking history, I had no symptoms of emphysema BEFORE I stopped smoking, so why is there CT evidence that I do have mild/moderate emphysema now, and why is it now, apparently, manifesting itself severely enough to prevent me walking up the slightest slope? I wonder if , like the game of Spillikins, if you change something – like the habit of a lifetime – you upset the balance of your physiology. I've now been prescribed Prednisolone, (6 x 5mg at breakfast time). I find it works WONDERFULLY and MARVELLOUSLY to ease my muscular pain, and helps me to get on with all my work about the house & garden - but does nothing whatsoever to ease my breathlessness; in fact, I wonder if it doesn't, in some perverse way, make my breathing worse?? What do others think? BTW: I look fine & healthy – no one would realise, to look at me, how seriously ill I am.

I have read most of the posts on this forum and I must say, I feel that the future for me is quite grim. I am 50 now and have been smoking since I was 15. In recent times I have strongly consided but after reading these posts I have to ask myself ...why?

Kurt, I'm 55 and stopped smoking 10 weeks ago after 41 years and probably an average of circa 30 - 40 a day. I'm suffering many of the withdrawals mentioned on here from chest pain to shortness of breath. You begin to think that you've only been able to stop because you were too ill to carry on. Tests for the obvious are so far negative and if that continues to be the case I can't tell you how fantastic I'm going to feel when I realise that the symptons are due to stopping smoking and not because smoking has caught up with me. You're asking "why stop". You've done that before I'm sure, just as I did time after time for the last 35 years or so on each occassion that I worried about the consequence of continueing to smoke The reason is obvious really, the symptons of stopping may, with some cruel irony, mimmick what we fear will occur if we continue to smoke however symptons from stopping will eventually diminish the other doesn't

Derek: Congratulations on quitting. We are all interested in knowing what your doctor says about your health from here on. I can't imagine smoking 41 years then quitting without your body going through extreme change! To stay quit, I remind myself that smoking is truly and abusive partner, and the chest pain and SOB are simply evidence. Going back for me is not an option, even if I recover 100%. Ten weeks is in the thick of the fight. Hang in there! We know the way to cigarette sobriety, and we're praying for you!

Thank God I read these posts. I thought I was dying. I have the SOB *after* I quit. I am 55 - smoked for like 37 years! I felt better when I was smoking! I thought I was losing my mind. X-rays are clear ; dr says breathing ok and better than it was two years ago - although two years ago I felt better. Now, taking anti-anxiety pills - mild ones - helping - This webiste helped me a lot - good not to be alone in this!

I smoked for 37 years - STAYING quit is so hard! I felt better when I did smoke. :( But I'm going to do it - If anyone can pray for me, I would appreciate it. After quitting, I feel very anxious - it is horrible - but this website is helping me - knowing that others are going through this and reading the stories....

Rack up another ex-smoker with shortness of breath (26 years old started when I was 17 escaped it for 3 years in there somewhere). I was embracing the new me, getting fit (now able to do a 15km run in one hour) and this SOB has set in. I am still running but I have cut it back dramaticaly incase it was somehow the cause. I had a small amount of blood in my mucus when I blew my nose after running a couple of times a few weeks ago. I will definately be going to the doctor to find out if there is anything I can do about it. Given the huge number of people expressing these symptoms I am surprised there is not more information out there about it. I have not noticed an elevated heart rate that should be associated with lack of oxygen supply (64 BPM). I was 80+ when I was smoking. I will press my doctor to warn ex-smokers about the condition so that it may cause less anxiety to them should they experience it. I will post again here if these symptoms go away. Please do the same if any of you recover/are cured