Dissociatives Breathing Difficulty due to N2O Use

[MsFenriss]

I've had a mild but persistent shortness of breath for over a year. I've been tested for literally every conceivable problem, and it all comes up clean. My respiration turns up normal by any clinical measure. My lungs seems clear as a bell based on at least 3 kinds of imaging. A gastroenterologist assures me it's not acid reflux. I am left with a conviction that it has to be use of nitrous before I realized how critical it is to filter it. I've tried menthol steam, some home respiratory PT where my partner pounds on my back while I'm tilted almost upside down. I've tried saline nebulizer treatments. I cannot get any relief. I was even completely honest with my pulmonologist about the nitrous theory, and he just shrugged and said he'd never heard of such an issue and it's probably all in my head. It's not. Has anyone else experienced this? I'm miserable and desperate. Thanks for reading.

 

[Forever Changes]

Sorry to hear that. How much and often did you use N20?

and did you try any filters like a mask, or did you use balloons?

 

[MsFenriss]

Sorry to hear that. How much and often did you use N20?

and did you try any filters like a mask, or did you use balloons?

Thanks for the reply. I had been doing it very rarely (maybe once or twice a year) but doing pretty significant amounts. Like, sharing a box of 200 with two other people over the course of a evening. That last time (when the breathing problem started) was the first time I had done it in a couple of years. I didn't realize that it needed to be filtered, thinking it was safe because it was used for food. I've always just sucked it right out of a whipped cream dispenser. And waaaaaay back in the 90s when I first tried it, nobody I knew who did it ever had any health problems. I think perhaps the regulations on cleanliness for the cylinders have been changed since then? I don't know. But for more than a year, I can't really get a full breath.

 

[Forever Changes]

That's a lot less than some have used it for. Perhaps your breathing problems aren't caused by N20 use?

I really wish I could help more - I'm not sure about the regulations on N20 canisters, especially now the market has been flooded with the big tanks which are sold for one purpose only (not catering).

 

[LucidSDreamr]

I used to use a lot of nitrous and landed in the hospital with a partially collapsed lung (adelectysis is the medical term). Almost died due to not being able to breathe.

Years later I started to get stabbing sharp pain in my lungs after even just a few cartridges of nitrous. These pains would last a couple weeks.

It fucks your lungs badly is what my lungs are telling me.

Do u smoke or vape any other things? You should stop all smoking.

Do you feel the shortness of breath if you excercise (has your capacity for cardio excercise been decreased? )....or do you only notice this shortness of breath at rest?

 

[Gary White]

If you are breathing unfiltered nitrous from those carts you are getting a lot of oil and that will screw you up. I assume they are using oil lubricated compressors because that is what the oil looks like, compressor oil. Using a soda bottle or cream dispenser does trap a lot of the oil, I have dumped almost 10 ccs out of my ICO but a lot still stays in suspension in the gas. My filter is 2 stage, an initial trip through garage oil absorber then through a 0.3 micron filter. That oil absorber needs to be changed occasionally too. I noticed the oil right away when we couldn't get nitrous medical cylinders anymore.