Life after a Pneumothorax

You will be in a lot of pain for quite sometime, a collapsed lung is quite a horrific thing to have to go through...there were many occasions when I thought my lung had collapsed again because of the pain that I was in, as a general rule of thumb... If you can't breathe properly then seek medical

Advice straight away, I used to wait about 12 hours to see if the pain subsided and it always did. The more you do the faster you will heal. It was nearly a year before I felt completely normal again but I did have surgery too.

Everyone puts there horror stories on the Internet and no one shares the good... but think of the majority that have a more positive story... I promise you there are many.

The only remedy I can offer is a positive attitude, fight through the pain, you have to remain strong and carry on, I know it's hard, I've been there but you will get through it and it will get better.

Feel free to contact me anytime.

Unfortunately, I rectified every reason they gave me for the collapse, and it still happened. Low weight, I put weight on. High impact, to low impact, still occurred... Smoked, quit, still happened. It's inevitable, if it's going to happen, it will, and nothing we can do to change it.

We can't let it control our lives though, we'll always have pain here n there. But, the key is to not let it consume us, worry about it. Live life to its fullest, and when we're down, we will get back up!!

George,

I've no idea if you'll see this as it's been four months since you posted, but you are NOT alone! My first SP event happened when I was 15. It wasn't particularly painful(until after the surgery) but both lungs were down to about 30% capacity of less. It was crushing, and, of course, very frightening. I've been very active all my life, so, to have that taken away was extremely difficult at that age, especially when we had no idea why.

Well, I'm currently 31. I've run a few tough mudder races, I play hockey every week, and it off the clear blue, while comfortably seated and processing invoices at work, I felt a sharp, stabbing pain just under my left collarbone. My wife drove me to the hospital that night just to be sure that it was NOT anything more than bad gas pains considering my history. Sadly, it was a new SP event, originating from the opposite side as the previous one 15 or so years ago. As my lungs were not nearly as collapsed as the first time, the ER doctor opted for the much smaller tube, but didn't insert the needle deeply enough and do had to perform the entire procedure twice. Recently, I've been having a really hard time at work with my schedule changing drastically(working overnights, working AMs, PAs) hardly seeing my wife, eating well or exercising. I had just had a discussion with my wife about turning my negativity around, not coming up with excuses and getting my life back on track that very morning! When you say that it brings you to tears, I fully understand. In my room at the hospital, at 3 or 4 AM, well after I'd send my wife home to get some sleep, I was in a bad state just asking, "Why?".

The doctors can't answer it and neither can I, but I won't let this beat me and neither should you. Do your best to take care of yourself and eat well. Remember, these crappy things can happen to you or anyone with no notice, but they do NOT control how we react! If we lay around feeling sorry for ourselves or coming up with excuses for every time something negative happens, we'll never break out of it.

All of that to say, George, you are NOT alone! It's frustrating but YOU are your master and decide to let or not let things affect you. Good luck, friend!

Thanks, derrickm for the words of encouragement and Thanks for sharing your story with me. It means a great deal to me just hearing of our very similar medical issues and reading your journey through your own battles and how your pushing forward and refusing to waiver is so inspiring and is exactly what I needed to hear. The last time I shared I had a total of 6 S/P with 3 S/P recurring on my right lung and 3 S/P recurring on my left but since then I have had my right lung collapsed again resulting in a V.A.T.S procedure being performed with a wedge resection and the talc powder being used was in the hospital 7 days with an epidural tap on my spine the recovery time was 3 months and than my left lung collapsed again at which they also performed The V.A.T.S (Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery) with a wedge resection and the talc powder the only difference was instead of the epidural for pain they opted to nitro freeze blast the veins where the incisions would be they told me it would be a faster recovery I still had to be in the hospital 7 days but it only would take 2-3 weeks to recover oppose to 3 months. So, It has been 1 month and 18 days since the last surgery and I feel better knowing the chances of a S/P never happening again are heavily in my favor. Thanks again derrickm for your kind words, advice and insight. I'm definitely going to take your advice on eating healthy and working out. Time to take my life back! I can't Thank You enough , Friend!

Thank you brian74750 for sharing your story and kind words. I will definitely keep fighting and getting my life back. This forum is amazing because a big problem is expressing to people and family in my everyday life what I'm going through and how I feel on a Physical, Emotional and Mental level but I'm always more frustrated because I feel like with anything else in life it's hard to even attempt to understand without having gone through it personally. That's why this forum and others like it are so important and necessary so individuals like myself and countless others know we are not alone in what sometimes can feel like our darkest hours.

Hi! 

I have had five pneumothorax over last there years. This summer I had surgery twice. And now I'm trying to recover and get a normal life again. I just wonder when you say you get a Pneumothorax in your sleep and that it heal by itself. How does that work? 

(I'm sorry if my english is not perfect, I'm from Sweden :-)

Ever since my surgery which implicated having my lungs glued to my thorax, (in simple terms) my lungs collapse and after resting for a few days they go back to normal. I also learned that a lot of it has to do with my immune system. I'm currently a college student and when I stay up for 2 or 3 days straight due to exams, stress and or projects my immune system gets very unstable, sometimes I get sick but most of the time I get really small lung collapses. I can tell by having difficulty breathing, pain when breathing deeply, and sharp upper back pain. Stress has been one of the main cause for my lung collapses. Once I finish with all my school work and start sleeping more the lung collapse, pain and hardness to breath goes away. Have you been under a lot of stress?

Sorry, I'm a male. The doctors said they were going to send tests samples to the lab but I don't know if I ever received them or not I was underage at the time so my parents might have the information.

This is great to hear. I had two pleurodesis' two years ago and today I woke up with pain and after going to the hospital and doing a xray, the DR. told me that I have a very small pneumothorax and that I should come back tomorrow for another xray to see if it went away by itself

I'm hoping that it will go away on it's own and the pleurodesis will continue to fix the issue and it won't ever become a large collapse. 

Anything you do when you get a small collapse? Bed rest? or you just deal with the pain until it goes away?

I Shawn -

I see this post is 9 months old, but no one has responded. I hope by now the small pneumo has absorbed itself. I too had this issue (and still do occasionally) where I had two small air pockets a month after surgery (a year ago). I went to the Dr. and he told me to wait another month and come back again for another x-ray. Sure enough, the two small areas were gone and had been "absorbed". Hopefully this is the case for you as well. I don't do bed rest, there is no point in that, I just carry on with life as usual. Eventually the pain goes away, but I do focus on very deep breaths often and give it a few days. However, I am not a Dr. so if you have any concern, please get an x-ray and consult your Dr. for what course is best for you. Good luck! Hope this helps.