I don't know the answer at all, but reading through past posts, especially from AnnieB, it could possibly be from MG. My guess: Your muscles aren't strong enough to exhale properly, causing CO2 to stay in your lungs, and you breathe faster and shallower to try and get more O2 without ever fully emptying the gases.

COPD usually has a cough that is productive and is worse in the mornings and with your history, they may have ruled it out, so never mentioned it?

Many of the x-ray, CT, MRI notes are kind of copy&paste and based solely on what the image shows. I learned some really interesting stuff about my anatomy from the MRI and CT notes (I'm a special snowflake in so many ways!), and also learned that the radiologists don't read patient histories. My CT scan showed no thyroid - did I have a possible history of thyroid disease?? Uhh, yeah, duh. Glance at my meds or my health history for 1 minute and you'd see your answer.

So yes, your doctors are probably about as incompetent as you believe, though I hate to be so down on them. It's very difficult to have a rare disease that presents with such a myriad of revolving symptoms. Most doctors just will not have dealt with a patient with MG, though that doesn't excuse how a lot of them write off our complaints as crazy or from anxiety, etc. and don't bother to read anything... bleh.

Sounds like you are doing the right things in getting personal copies of all your records. I've started keeping a journal of symptoms and other data (outside high temp, O2 sat and pulse sitting and reclining, changes I made in my daily routine, and anything else I notice) just these past few days based on reading through these forums.

Good luck! We're in this leaky boat together!