yes it is painfull,but it is a true reading of how well your lungs are taking out the co2.People get confused about copd,its not about getting enough air in,infact it is exhaling to get co2 out.If your intake of oxygen is to high you will not be able to process the exchange properly and will retain co2,the more co2 the less 02 your lungs can process,thus you will trigger the brain into thinking you are short of breath and start a panic attack and we know the rest.This is why it is very important to be properly assesed as the actual blood gas and how much oxygen you should be set at to reach a balance,too much is as bad as too little.Most of the confusion is your saturation while resting vs when you are walking etc.You have to know where you are at and what your medications are doing,i find for myself the more rehab you can do the stronger your lungs get and can in some cases get off of oxygen except for sleeping.

I don't know Deb ... You could be retaining CO2 - try blowing up a balloon or I use a sandwich bag ... I also got a that new inhaler Trelegy - I haven't needed to use my emergency inhaler and I am not sob ... What a difference ..

If your O2 sats are right where they should be and you're experiencing sob, that's generally the result of air trapping. Go to www.copdfoundation.org and put COPD 101 in the search engine. It's a series of five videos that show how the lungs work and how COPD affects them. You'll learn a lot.

I wish I had the answer because it happens to me at times I believe it's because of the damage to our lungs I have alot of scarring on my lungs toI hope someone can answer the question better like Jean she are Ronaldl. Take care I have asked my dr about it with no answer from him

Try looking up buteyko.. It saved my life