EPT3 years ago, I had a pneumothorax on my left lung. Had a procedure almost identical to yours (except they didn't stick the tube in for 3-4 days after... That came later) and went home. A few weeks later it recurred. Turns out it was another bubble (I'm not sure why your doctors scared you so much haha), they did the same procedure with the tube this time, nothing happened for a few days (lung didn't fully reinflate) and they transferred me to another hospital to perform actual surgery on me. I suspect this surgery is the one you're going to undertake. Click the spoiler if you wanna know what happens. I'll be honest, you might not like what you read, then again, it might not be as bad as you think.
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Basically they cut off the portion of your lung with the bubbles, and stick the lung to the top of the chest cavity with some sort of special substance, so that it won't collapse again.
After the operation, I had a tube that was attached to the box thing that connections to the suction nozzle on the wall (I'm sure you know what I'm talking about haha) coming out of the side of my chest where they made the incision to get in. It's purpose was to suck out the blood/fluid that was collecting since they operated on the lung. They will not let you out of hospital until they are confident that there is no more blood/fluid collecting (the box can measure how much is coming out of you), and that your lung stays inflated. Finally,. they'll take the tube out (it actually forks into 2 parts going into you, because they made 2 incisions).
I'm not gonna lie. The post surgery stay sucks (it varies, but for me it lasted around 7 days?). First, it obviously hurts to have the tube in you 24 hours of the day. They hooked me up to painkillers through an IV drip that was constantly pumping it into my back, a morphine drip which I could control with a button, and gave me painkillers (morphine based) every 2-3 hours if I needed it) Your movement is restricted as well (gotta carry the box around with you everywhere and drag the pole with the IV drips attached to it). I experienced this 3 times. After the surgery on the left, my right lung had a small but recurring collapse on the right side a year later, and was advised to have the same surgery. Did it, there was an infection during the surgery, and had to go through the whole post surgery thing again. On the plus side, I'm all good now
After the operation, I had a tube that was attached to the box thing that connections to the suction nozzle on the wall (I'm sure you know what I'm talking about haha) coming out of the side of my chest where they made the incision to get in. It's purpose was to suck out the blood/fluid that was collecting since they operated on the lung. They will not let you out of hospital until they are confident that there is no more blood/fluid collecting (the box can measure how much is coming out of you), and that your lung stays inflated. Finally,. they'll take the tube out (it actually forks into 2 parts going into you, because they made 2 incisions).
I'm not gonna lie. The post surgery stay sucks (it varies, but for me it lasted around 7 days?). First, it obviously hurts to have the tube in you 24 hours of the day. They hooked me up to painkillers through an IV drip that was constantly pumping it into my back, a morphine drip which I could control with a button, and gave me painkillers (morphine based) every 2-3 hours if I needed it) Your movement is restricted as well (gotta carry the box around with you everywhere and drag the pole with the IV drips attached to it). I experienced this 3 times. After the surgery on the left, my right lung had a small but recurring collapse on the right side a year later, and was advised to have the same surgery. Did it, there was an infection during the surgery, and had to go through the whole post surgery thing again. On the plus side, I'm all good now
Basically, I know what it feels like. It sucks wondering if you'll keep having these episodes. But the surgery you're gonna get is designed to stop it from ever happening again, as opposed to the procedure you had done originally. Just try to stay positive, and look forward to a pneumothorax free life after this
