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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Hepatitis / February 2008coughing & shortness of breath
Has anyone experienced coughing & shortness of breath during tx? My husband has finished week 32 of now the extended 72 weeks of tx. He is now having bouts of shortness of breath. He isn't over exerting himself. Is this something to be concerned with or is this another side affect of tx? Thanks for any replies. Deb >Has anyone experienced coughing & shortness of breath during tx? My >husband has finished week 32 of now the extended 72 weeks of tx. He is >now having bouts of shortness of breath. He isn't over exerting >himself. Is this something to be concerned with or is this another side >affect of tx? Thanks for any replies. Deb Well, surely both symptoms are due to side effects. I'd be surprised if *anyone* on combo tx doesn't experience coughing at some point - usually beginning around the 3rd month - so I wouldn't be too concerned on that point. Otoh, the shortness of breath is something to be concerned about, as it is often a sign of anemia. Does your husband keep copies of his blood lab reports? If so, I'd dive right in and check his latest hemoglobin count, and see if it has dropped below 11g/dl. If it has, it might be time to approach the treating doc for an Epogen/Procrit prescription. If he doesn't get copies of his labs - or even worse, if he hasn't had frequent lab tests while under therapy - it would be prudent to contact the treating physician and either have him check his latest lab results, or get him scheduled for a fresh round of tests. Either way, shortness of breath isn't something that should be ignored... Cheers /greyhackles OTOH, I had shortness of breath through treatment. A walk up one flight of stairs would do it. Also, when I started out walking, if I started out fast, I got a very peculiar and unpleasant tightness in the chest. That was scary. But if I started out slow and then sped up after 5 minutes or so, no problem. Both started fading out 3 weeks after treatment and were gone after a couple of months. > Has anyone experienced coughing & shortness of breath during tx? My > husband has finished week 32 of now the extended 72 weeks of tx. He is > now having bouts of shortness of breath. He isn't over exerting > himself. Is this something to be concerned with or is this another side > affect of tx? Thanks for any replies. Deb Hi Debbie, You may want to go to: http://www.health.state.ny.us/diseases/communicable/hepatitis/guidelines/appena.htm and check down about number six or seven on the list of some of the side effects of tx. Look for 'Pulmonary' It should explain some things for you and your husband. Be as well as you can cactus jammies --------- > Has anyone experienced coughing & shortness of breath during tx? My > husband has finished week 32 of now the extended 72 weeks of tx. He is > now having bouts of shortness of breath. He isn't over exerting > himself. Is this something to be concerned with or is this another side > affect of tx? Thanks for any replies. Deb >Has anyone experienced coughing & shortness of breath during tx? My >husband has finished week 32 of now the extended 72 weeks of tx. He is >now having bouts of shortness of breath. He isn't over exerting >himself. Is this something to be concerned with or is this another side >affect of tx? Thanks for any replies. Deb I did. I think pretty much everybody experiences some degree of anemia from the Ribavirin. He should, of course, report any side effects to his doctor, but these don't sound unusual to me. Thanks to all of you for the information & support! Called doctor's office & was told to go to the er. They seemed to be afraid that my husband was having a heart attack. Good news is that all tests came out fine. The er doc said he believed that my husband needed the fluid removed from his abdomen. This may be the cause of the shortness of breath. He has cirrhosis stage 4. And his belly looks large to me. I have been looking at ascites on line. This procedure doesn't look any worse than the liver biopsy. I was wondering if anyone else has had to have this procedure? Is the liver causing the extra fluid? Thanks again, Deb >Thanks to all of you for the information & support! > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > >Thanks again, Deb Ah - good for you for posting your concern, then. Ascites is the result of the afflicted liver not producing sufficient levels of serum albumen, which in turns causes vessels to "leak" plasma, which eventually pools in the abdomen. If enough fluid pools there, it not only causes some visually evident bloating, it can eventually constrain breathing by restricting the diaphragm. I'm not sure anyone presently posting here has undergone the procedure to drain the pooled fluid, but in the past there have been folks here that had. It didn't sound like an ordeal, and in theory the procedure is actually safer than a liver biopsy, and they reported feeling much better afterwards. Hope your husband is feeling a bit better soon! Cheers /greyhackles >Thanks to all of you for the information & support! > [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > >Thanks again, Deb I knew that they were treating patients with compensated cirrhosis (liver still functioning well) but didn't know they were treating decompensated (liver functioning not so well) patients as the presence of ascites indicates. I hope this works out well for you. I believe that fluid can become infected as well. I haven't seen any posts in quite a while from group members with decompensated cirrhosis but I know that ascites does happen when livers reach this stage and sometimes needs to be drained. What the er doc said would seem to make sense. Best wishes, Don |
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