Pneumothorax never fully recovered. Certain blips.

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Hi there,

I had spontaneous pneumothorax when I was 17. This was recurring 3 times and I had surgery and chest tubes. On the last round of pneumothorax they did a procedure where they inflamed my lungs so it can attach to my chest wall?

Sorry this was quite some time ago and I do know the technical term. 

Since then I've had no trouble breathing or pain on a day to day basis. The only time I have pain is when I stretch a particular way with my arms raised (or any overstretch of the chest) or sneeze super hard.

The pain I refer to is the exact pneumothorax blip or pop sound. I have to then exhale the blip out which I can hear and then the pain only lasts during that time I exhale the blip out. I hear the pop sound and then breathing is back to normal with no pain. I am able to take deep breaths thereafter.

I went to the doctor about this and got multiple x-rays and was never able to prove that I have an active case of pneumothorax. I obviously could not replicate the blip when I was at the hospital.

What I'm asking is has anyone experienced anything similar after their pneumothorax has healed? 

Has anyone's pneumothorax never fully healed. I'd say my case is 90% healed. 

This happened on my left side only. Thanks.

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  • Posted

    I've had three vats in the last 4 years ( I'm 20) and am currently a month out since my last one. I still have occasional pain on both sides and am currently living in constant fear of another collapse. The docs so far either don't know the cause or say its normal from surgery. I've never heard of your strange blip, but I would suggest continuing to see pulmonologists until someone figures this out. 

    Honestly it seems like nobody knows what is really going on with this.

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