Breathing trouble after deployment

#4
Re: Breathing trouble after deployment

I never made it to Iraq but I have a friend who did and has the same problems though he only mentioned it once or twice so it doesn't sound like it effects him all that much. Perhaps chronic sand inhalation causing some sort of infection/congestion???
 
#5
Re: Breathing trouble after deployment

I am in the process of evaluating him. All the easy stuff has been done, like blood clots, heart dz ect....
I am aware of the NEJM publication of 21July2011

What I want to do is talk to any brothers who have BTDT and now are having trouble breathing. Making PT standards is out because of shortness of breath or anything like that. Especially if you have already been to the VA or to a military hospital with it.

Thanks
 
#6
Re: Breathing trouble after deployment

When I went to get a physical for my commission, they gave me a chest x-ray and it showed I had some scarring on my lungs, they asked me if I ever had bronchitis or pneumonia or some other respiratory infection. I never have, but I did spend a year at FOB Rustamiyah in Iraq, the most toxic place on earth according to Rolling Stone. Luckily I have it documented in my medical paperwork that I was exposed to all sorts of nastiness there. I should head over to VA and have them check it out, add to the documentation, I do find when I go running that it feels like I can never get enough oxygen and my chest hurts after a mile or so.

I haven't taken a PT test this year yet, recovering from Heart surgery, but I did take 5 PT tests last year and passed all them, I've only gone running once since my surgery, going to go again tonight, and while I didn't run that far or that fast, 1.2 miles in roughly 10 minutes, I felt ok at the end, no lightheaded feeling or gasping for breath. But it was a slow pace, going to push a little harder tonight.
 
#8
Re: Breathing trouble after deployment

nothing nearly that bad but I was having a hell of a time trying to run while in Balad. I know that there have been publications and linkages to pretty much any base that was operating burn pits...

Best I can say is good luck.
 
#9
Re: Breathing trouble after deployment

He (and you if you're helping him out) needs to get it documented in his Post-Deployment Health Re-Assessment (PDHRA). It is documentation that will help out immensely for both military and VA tracking, records, and (eventually) disability ratings.

In particular if there are any ailments or owies that happened that didn't get logged in individual military health records (traumatic brain injuries from kabooms, PTSD-causes, smoke inhalation, noise and garbage exposure, bug bites, problems sleeping, falls -- you name it, there's a place for both the troop and the health provider to make sure it's documented at least here if not SOMEWHERE in one's individual med file.
 
#11
Re: Breathing trouble after deployment

Everytime I have came home for a while this has happened and I usually get sick within a week or so. Its been Bronchial the last 2 trips. 1 from Iraq and 1 from Afg. I figured its all the shit in the air and dust there and not real sure the years I am/do loose off my life being there is worth the 225k I make a year when I am there.

Its definately not worth it for your average soldier who makes shit for pay while there.

In short, yes there is a problem and it goes back to the dust and whats in it.


<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: crumpmd</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I am no longer in the military system, and have not been for 15 years. So I appreciate the input about the PDHRA.

Anyone else been at <span style="color: #3366FF">Balad </span> or Bagram and now you can't breathe? </div></div>

Highlighted in Blue is the problem. I think there may have been a lawsuit to do with it and open pit burning with some other issues involved.
CNN link from 2009

 
#12
Re: Breathing trouble after deployment

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Papagrizzly</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Could be blood clots in his lungs.

Needs to get it checked out ASAP!</div></div> Holy shit! Please get Him to get medical attention! Happened to Me, & I am a one lunger now. Blood clots kill.
 
#15
Re: Breathing trouble after deployment

Bagram in 2008 for me. Ever since running has been a bitch, same for some of the others. I have been nervous about getting seen for any of this since I'm only 8 years in and want to go longer. A few of the guys I was there with are going through the VA system for sleep apnea now.
 
#16
Re: Breathing trouble after deployment

One of the guys in my shop came back from kandahar with breathing problems. The smog there makes LA look pristine...

Thank god 3rd world countries just burn whatever the fuck they want, all the time...
 
#17
Re: Breathing trouble after deployment

I've spent the last 55 months between Kabul and Kandahar. We get annual chest x-rays. I've come up clean each year, but I know of a couple others that haven't. It's far from common, but it does happen. Best wishes for your friend, hopefully it's early.

Alderleet, Kabul's air quality makes Kandahar look like a pristine tropical paradise. If it wasn't for not getting blown up anymore I'd almost miss the south. However, I'm not looking forward to another winter here once the valley inversions start kicking in again. Salt Lake Valley has nothing to bitch about compared to here.
 
#19
Re: Breathing trouble after deployment

Respiratory issues are very common after deployment to Iraq and A-Stan. If your buddy has been checked for clots, scaring of lung tissue and TB, he may have developed a type of allergic asthma which constricts the airway making it difficult to breath with activity. The most important thing he can do is get medical attention. Have him request a stress-test and make sure he follows up. Good luck.
 
#20
Re: Breathing trouble after deployment

Balad 05 for me and I have issues.. I am going to throw out a wild guess but those huge nasty burn pits where they burned everything from tires to body parts probably didn't help.

Wake up in the morning.. not feeling like Pdiddy but more like I smoked about 4 packs of unfiltered camels.

Oh well I now have sleep apnea so whatever
 
#21
Re: Breathing trouble after deployment

I have been to Iraq, Baghdad three tours and Bagram one tour. Normally it is the sand storms that cause the chronic coughing, wheezing, and difficulty in breathing. I was around lots of guys that would cough their whole tour and have shortness of breath. I always got a bronchitis like feeling early on in my tours and always after a sand storm. There is some bad stuff flying around in that fine dust. I have been fortunate and never had any lasting effects, or so I pray, but others around me have had some bad effects from that stuff.
 
#22
Re: Breathing trouble after deployment

You're buddy is 39, so there are lots of things that have nothing to do with deploying that could cause it.
The fine dust of the middle east is a real pain in the lungs, and everywhere else. look what it did to weapons and vehicles there. How often did you have to blow out air filters, change oil, and hit your grease points. And weapons up and exposed could easily clog to a degree they didn't work.
But normal lungs will push that crap up with mucous eventually. The mucous will even be tinged with the color of the dust. Smokers have a harder time with that because tobacco (and weed) weaken and paralyze the cilia.
Diseases like sarcoidosis can cause that kind of trouble. It is a autoimmune disorder. Though not common among whites I know a few otherwise healthy middle age white guys who have it. It was what Bernie Mack had.
Chronic, low grade bacterial respiratory infections are the most common cause. Not enough to progress to pneumonia usually, but cause SOB, chronic cough, and other symptoms. It could last for many, many months and never get better, or worse, unless you get another Resp infection or you weaken and it progresses to bronchitis and pneumonia. A 10 day course of Augmentin will usually clear it right up. That would be my best guess. When you deploy you are exposed to lots of exotic variations of Staph, Strep, and other stuff your body isn't used to from home. Mixing with people from other areas causes it too.
So insist on a 10 day course of Augmentin and get back to me then. Take double the dose the first time to get you up to theraputic levels, It's called a "Loading dose". Then take one twice or three times a day (as ordered) and finish the whole script. Trust me, I'm a professional.
Unfortunately everybody seems to be looking for a disability for something these days. PTSD, Lungs, "I was raped". There are a lot of fakers out there clogging the system with "problems" that can't be identified, because they don't actually exist. The "complaints" perpetuate the myth, and encourage others to jump on board.
Sorry for my cynicism, but it's the truth.
 
#23
Re: Breathing trouble after deployment

Ya know when I was 39/40 and started Karate I came across the same issue.

Went to the doc and found out I have adrenaline induced Asthma.

Hit an inhaler and I'm good during sparring sessions etc.


When I got laid off I did have one bout of it bad one night - anxiety hit me...it's a mental game where manning up was my only way out of the breathing thing.

Excercise Asthma/Adrenaline Asthma, has many names.
 
#24
Re: Breathing trouble after deployment

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Donttrytorun</div><div class="ubbcode-body">You're buddy is 39, so there are lots of things that have nothing to do with deploying that could cause it.
The fine dust of the middle east is a real pain in the lungs, and everywhere else. look what it did to weapons and vehicles there. How often did you have to blow out air filters, change oil, and hit your grease points. And weapons up and exposed could easily clog to a degree they didn't work.
But normal lungs will push that crap up with mucous eventually. The mucous will even be tinged with the color of the dust. Smokers have a harder time with that because tobacco (and weed) weaken and paralyze the cilia.
Diseases like sarcoidosis can cause that kind of trouble. It is a autoimmune disorder. Though not common among whites I know a few otherwise healthy middle age white guys who have it. It was what Bernie Mack had.
Chronic, low grade bacterial respiratory infections are the most common cause. Not enough to progress to pneumonia usually, but cause SOB, chronic cough, and other symptoms. It could last for many, many months and never get better, or worse, unless you get another Resp infection or you weaken and it progresses to bronchitis and pneumonia. A 10 day course of Augmentin will usually clear it right up. That would be my best guess. When you deploy you are exposed to lots of exotic variations of Staph, Strep, and other stuff your body isn't used to from home. Mixing with people from other areas causes it too.
So insist on a 10 day course of Augmentin and get back to me then. Take double the dose the first time to get you up to theraputic levels, It's called a "Loading dose". Then take one twice or three times a day (as ordered) and finish the whole script. Trust me, I'm a professional.
Unfortunately everybody seems to be looking for a disability for something these days. PTSD, Lungs, "I was raped". There are a lot of fakers out there clogging the system with "problems" that can't be identified, because they don't actually exist. The "complaints" perpetuate the myth, and encourage others to jump on board.
Sorry for my cynicism, but it's the truth. </div></div>

Dude, seriously? Look at my profile.
 
#25
Re: Breathing trouble after deployment

Doc, you didn't get the memo? Dontrytothink was a marine, an autism treatment specialist, a savior of Nordic virtue at the hands of dodgy Middle Easterners AND a specialist in cardiovascular, vascular and bronchial ailments.

As soon as he figures out a way to adjust his tin foil hat so it doesn't completely shut off the supply of oxygen to his head he'll go on to become the founding father of the Institute of Higher Learning for the Officially Brain Dead, Delusional and Irrelevant.

Seriously, you didn't get the memo?
 
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