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So tomorrow morning I go into hospital for the first part of the lung surgery I've been waiting for.
It's supposed to take 2 hours in which the surgeon will first deflate the lung then do bullectomies (I think this is chopping off little airsacks called bulla/blebs from lung - which have been bursting), pleural abrasion (roughen surface of lung), and inject a chemical irritant to promote growth of scar tissue which will seal that part of my lung to the pleural wall.
All this because I am "unlucky" enough to have lungs which spontaneously collapse, i.e. spontaneous pneumothorax, apparently because tall thin young men, usually smokers (I don't smoke) can just get them randomly.
He is gonna try to do it thorascopically (keyhole) but it depends how tricky it is so he may have to make a large incision around to my back. Also he may have to saw through a rib to get in.
Anyway these things have been in my mind so was wanting to ask if anyone else can share their experiences of pneumothoraces or people they know who have had them - especially surgery.
Recovery is 4-6 weeks, so hopefully I will be spending plenty of time on teamliquid while sitting around. Sucks though that I miss out on summer (also once I get better they have to do the other lung T_T).
Edit: Sorry if this doesn't make sense, I tried to explain some of the stuff but it's kinda late.
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Whoa, thats pretty intense. 4-6 week recovery? I didn't know it was so bad. Hopefully you have lots of things to amuse yourself with. Good luck!
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Yikes.
Best of luck tomorrow. Hopefully you make a speedy recovery!
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I had surgery on my spine once. In order to get there they had to saw 7 ribs und shove one lung aside^^. Its very important not to spare your lung to much afterwards (in my case i did because breathing hurt the broken rips), else it gets not enough air and you can get a pleural effusion ( which i did):p.
Dont worry about the surgery, you may even get "funny pills"^^. Just put some effort in the recovery and all will be fine. Suxx about the 4-6 weeks though. Do you have to stay in the hospital all the time or do you get to go home?
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Sorry for my ignorance, but.... how does a lung collapse feel like? what happens? and how often does it happen?
above all else, Good luck!!
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England2670 Posts
My friend had this. He's not that tall and thin, but he wasn't a smoker either. He's absolutely fine now, so don't worry about that. The surgery went fine with no complication and he recovered smoothly.
As for me, I've had very minor surgery twice but it's been fine either time.
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oh tat sucks man
i had pneumothorax a year and a half ago but it wasnt this serious. had cough for like 3 months b4 i finally went to the doctor to get it checked out and i found out tat my lung was about to collapse cuz the air in my lungs were goin out into my body. got surgery tat day to remove the air and relieve the pressure on my lung=/ had to stay in the hospital for like 5 days to recover and a chest tube stuck in my side =/ luckily my surgery was pretty simple.
man but to have both lungs collapse or on the verge of collapse must suck. hopefully the surgery goes well.
once the surgery is over and ur recovering ur gonna be stuck in bed for a while. like literally u wont b allowed to get up. and even after u can get out of bed. u wont really b able to do much even after tat. and u wont even want to because pneumothorax has a high chance of happening again if u dont take care of urself after. so take it slow and easy. oh and i hope u dont have to stay in the hospital the entire recovery time haha... itll b really boring if its like the hospital i went to.
ill b prayin for ya man
and to chongu:
a lung can collapse spontaneously, chest injury, etc
not sure how common it is.
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good luck to you sir.hope you get well soon.
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good luck, my friend, keep it up!!!
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I'm not sure this is the standard intervention for pneumothorax, actually it looks worse than I thought pneumothorax are dealth with, but i don't want to scare you, the risks associated with the intervention should't be many, also the thorascopy it's a way smarter way to get things done; basically they inflate the area between the 2 pleuras and they pierce through your thorax only to insert the instruments in that area, one of which is a camera, so all you should have left are like 4 or 5 small holes on your skin. What I don't like about the intervention is that they're apparently going to take away some lung respiratory tissue(that's what i've understood from your description), decreasing your total lung capacity, but i guess it's a non relevant part; also the growth of scar tissue is going to limit your pulmonary compliace, meaning the respiratory muscles will have to spend more energy to inflate and expand the lung.
Again i'm sorry i don't want to scare you, i'm trying to put my knoledges into this blog to see more clear into this thing, but the bad aspects i mentioned could be actually irrelevant, otherwise they are not going to plan an intervention wich is going to increase the risk of respiratory insufficience, also i'm just at the fourth year of study of medicine, still didn't do anything related with surgery^^, all i'm talking about is just physiology
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United States44015 Posts
I wish you a speedy recovery.
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I think one of my friends had this problem. He had a lung problem surgery thing because his lung collapsed but he was back in school in no time. Hopefully you'll have a speedy recovery as well.
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Good luck with the operation man! I'll be waiting for your status update!! :D
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konadora
Singapore66363 Posts
Any normal surgery sounds scary enough... so this sounds like a nightmare of me getting killed by DTs over and over again, that bad.
Good luck, wishing you a speedy recovery after your surgery!
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Good luck man. Good thing that you're terran so the medics are on your side.
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I just had emergency surgery to remove my appendix, and yeah surgery sucks! however being off for 6 weeks is nice, you will have tons of time for SC! I hope you have a speedy recovery, and a complication free surgery. GL
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EPT
