More about breathing:
The occupational therapist who was working on me noticed something. I had spoken of feeling a tendency to faint when rising from a chair. I never actually fainted, but the effect was there. Her observation about that was that I was rising too quickly and that I was holding my breath for a moment when doing so. That needed correction.
When rising from the chair, I was instructed to rise slowly and to not hold my breath at all. I tried to conform to this directive in the next few days during which I noticed that if I were to inhale while rising, the impulse to fainting became worse, but I were to exhale while rising, the impulse to fainting became less.
The occupational therapist was surprised by my reporting this, but later, the visiting nurse had something to say. The nurse told me that what I had discovered is a well known issue. Weight lifters, I was told, are trained to only exhale while lifting heavy loads.
I was told that when I am about to get up from a chair, I am to first inhale through my nose and then while rising, to exhale by blowing air out through my mouth as though into a straw.
I've since been following that instruction and things are indeed better.
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