My experience with a pneumothorax

[Adam007]

First of all, has anyone else had a pneumothorax? I had no idea what they were until I had one two weeks ago. My story's pretty long (probably me just wording it lengthily, so you'll probably get bored unless you're into medical stories)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was playing ping pong with a friend at my house at around 5. Whether or not the actual pneumothorax was caused by playing ping pong, I have no idea. About a half hour later though, I started feeling pain around my heart. I thought it was a torn muscle or something, so I just called my mom and asked about it. She got freaked out by how I described my pain, so she called my neighbor without me knowing, and she walked over and told me that she was going to take my blood pressure/heart rate at her house. Not asked, told. So awkwardly my friend left, since it was dinner time already.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking to my neighbor's house the pain got worse. I had to walk somewhat hunchbacked 3/4's of the way there because I was in moderate pain. She used the blood pressure tester thing, and I was fine. Just a moderately fast heartbeat. I waited there until my mom got home ten minutes later, and we walked home together. Back at home, I started feeling tingling in my left arm. That freaked me out, and my arm was a little hard to move like it was asleep, but it went away in five minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A good two hours went by and the weird things that were going on stopped happening. I had dinner and was lying on the couch, still in moderate pain. Out of nowhere though, I heard a bubbling going on in my chest. It sounded kind of like rice krispy treats when you pour it into milk. Crackling, popping. It really freaked me out. I called my parents over and they could hear it with their ears a good 2 feet away from my chest. We decided to go to the ER at this point after calling a doctor asking about it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By now it was about 9 or 10. I was feeling alright, still pain, but the bubbling noises quickly went away. They admitted me a nurse asked the usual questions. She said I could possibly (although a very rare chance) have a pnemothorax, the second mention of the word after hearing it from the doctor on the phone. Thinking nothing of that, I was moved to a bed to later have an X-ray. A half hour later I had my X-ray taken. It turned out I did indeed have a pneumothorax, which the doctor explained to me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A pneumothorax is basically when air escapes your lungs, forcing your lungs to collapse. It had happened in my left lung, and was referred to as a "spontaneous tension pneumothorax." My left lung had collapsed 35-40%. By "spontaneous," it means that it has no known cause for it occurring. We have no idea why it was caused. The doctor did say that teenage males who are tall and skinny tend to get it the most - which applies completely to me. It was tension, which is a rarity, and life threatening. That's why I felt it around my heart. If tension pneumothoraxes are left untreated, they can cause a heart attack or death.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All of this news was really freaking me out, since I had no idea what any of this meant for me. Shockingly, it turned out I'd need surgery and was further surprised to find out that I'd be in the hospital for a few days.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The procedure went like this. I was hooked up to an IV and given dilaudid, which I was told is seven times stronger than morphine. I felt really heavy after being injected with that, and the doctor efficiently did the procedure. He made an incision on my left side by my chest, and inserted a chest tube. I didn't feel any pain, but I felt his finger being inside of me, which really disgusted me (hopefully not you guys reading :P ). This tube was hooked up to a pressure box which would slowly over the next few days remove the air in my pleural space above my lung, so my lung could reinflate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was after midnight at this point, and I was taken by ambulance to a larger hospital. I had my own room since I'm a minor, which was nice. I guess I'm glad it happened then instead of this month, because I'll be 18 soon, and was really glad I didn't have to share a room. Anyways, over the next four days I had great nurses who basically took care of me. The food wasn't that bad. Some friends and family visited, and the time didn't really go by that slowly. I was in a lot of pain though, since the tube was inside of my and the doctor said that area is extremely sensitive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, I won't go too much into my hospital experience since I was there for four days and you guys pretty much can fill in the blanks. By Monday (I went in Friday night), they were ready to take the chest tube out. This was the painful part. They did put me on morphine (they had found out I was allergic to the dilaudid), and took the bandages off, which really, really, hurt. These weren't normal bandages. I was on morphine and I can safely say this part was one of the most painful things I've ever gone through. Once they took the bandages off, the most painful part happened when they yanked the tube out really fast. Pain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway, I'll try to wrap it up now. I was cleared to go, and got back home at around 10 that night. I had bandages on still, and would need to get the stitches out in a week. They gave me a ridiculous amount of oxycodon, which is stronger than vicodon. I had one pill out of the sixty perscribed - my parents didn't want me on it since, apparently, I was "really loopy" on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So this had happened over the Martin Luther King break, and the four days I was out covered my break. I hadn't missed any school, but unfortunately missed basically my whole time off it. The second day I did go back to school. My parents had me take Tylenol instead. The major thing was that I couldn't lift anything or do anything physical at all, and I had to leave classes early so I wouldn't get bumped in the halls or anything. This was the first day of the new semester, and I have a personal weights class, which we had to arrange that I would basically clean every day until the month was over, in which the doctors said I could do physical activity again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm still at about a 50% risk for it to happen again, and I'm still justifiably paranoid about it happening again whenever I get pains or weird sensations around the area that I could be having another one, but I'm slowly getting over this. I'd like to thank whoever started reading this and made it to the end. Really, I would. You've got a great attention span. I mostly wrote this to chronicle for myself the event. But if you were remotely informed or enjoyed the read, that's great.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So to turn this into a stronger discussion, had anyone else had to go through this? Is your story at all similar?

[Bubsa]

Phwoar, that's freaky mate! It's scary how the body can just 'collapse' like that with no known reason.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glad to hear you're OK. You could be understandably cautious to begin with, but I think it's important you get back into your normal lifestyle as soon as. It shouldn't worry you too much then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On a bit of an unrelated note, how was the hospital food when you stayed there? Recently I worked in a week in hospital catering and, believe you me, after seeing the way these people prepare the 'food', if you could call it that, I'd rather have a pneumothorax than eat it!

[Baemnt13]

This explained your absence! I have heard of this "disease" before, as it had happened to my friend, also tall and skinny, as well as my doctors warning me about it, I'm ALSO tall and skinny :P. Point is, I'm glad you're o.k., and most importantly, the doctors caught it early. As with every other disease in the world, if it is caught early enough, it can be treated. Good luck getting over your paranoia, I know those can be especially difficult to overcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stop by the TET room sometime :P

[Barihawk]

Your parents waited two hours?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you have chest pains and a tingling arm, its always best to get to the ER first and ask questions later. My first reaction would have been "Heart Attack!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Never hesitate to go to the hospital for serious pains.

[insane]

Wow, that's crazy. Hope you get well soon Adam!

[Biabf]

Your parents waited two hours?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When you have chest pains and a tingling arm, its always best to get to the ER first and ask questions later. My first reaction would have been "Heart Attack!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Never hesitate to go to the hospital for serious pains.

Yeah, when i saw those things I thought the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pity you didn't miss any school :x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Get well soon.

[baron8000]

Thanks, I am now sat as still as possible worrying my head off i might have a spontaneous thingamujigger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Seriously though, that sounds damn scary but an enlightening read (yes i read to the end :wink:) get well soon.

[wakka102]

I read it all :) . I'm glad to see your ok mate. That must have been scary.

[1_man_army]

Is it more painful when you try to move your torso as well? And it hurts up the left side of your chest right? If so it sounds similar to a pain I occasionally get as well although I've never had the tingling in the arm.

[runescapeloser22]

Ouch! That sounds painful #-o

 

 

 

I'm skinny, but not tall :D

 

 

 

You made me feel queezy when you mentioned that you could feel the doctor poking around in your stomach :P :oops:

[rushrock]

Wow! What an interesting read! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My dad is a doctor, and he is quite fluent with things like this. Today was the first day I ever heard of a pneumothorax, and it sounds pretty frightening. I hope you're okay!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aren't spontaneous pneumothorax(es?) quite rare? I know that they're fairly common after chest surgeries, but a spontaneous one? That seems a little odd...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well, I hope you feel better! :)

[None2None]

I just had one a month or so ago :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I procrastinated thinking it was just muscle pains for about a month...by the time I got to the hospital they said that 60% of my right lung had collapsed, and yea, mine was spontanious...freaky :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So far so good, nothing else has happaned..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

best of luck to ya!

[warri0r45]

Wow, scary. My mate had a collapsed lung once because he is tall and skinny. I don't think it was from a pneumothorax though.

[Satenza]

I would have fainted.

[ilya]

wow that was scary and sigusting, hope u r allright now

[None2None]

Wow, scary. My mate had a collapsed lung once because he is tall and skinny. I don't think it was from a pneumothorax though.

Same thing, the medical term is 'pneumothorax' though ;)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exactly my reason. Tall, skilly, young, males is what I was told :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumothorax

[splatmster24]

hmmmmmm...... do i know any tall skinny guys.........:walks into bathroom: "aaaaahhhhhhh!" "scream" "gasp" "rofl" "im tall skinny and a male!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", NOT GOOD! :paranoia sets in: "mommy!!!!!!!!"

[Viktorkrum77]

Had this happen to someone I faintly knew in school. And I know what he went through so I can 'somewhat' touch with what you've gone through. I'm glad to see you're doing good, you're pretty lucky you live in Ann Arbor, it's one of the best hospital cities in the nation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What would scare me is the constant unknowing of if it will happen again. Did they suggest you gain some weight?

[None2None]

hmmmmmm...... do i know any tall skinny guys.........:walks into bathroom: "aaaaahhhhhhh!" "scream" "gasp" "rofl" "im tall skinny and a male!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", NOT GOOD! :paranoia sets in: "mommy!!!!!!!!"

rofl :P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From my experice, it just feel slike a muscle pain and hurts when you breath too deep or suddenly move (jump, hit something, etc.) it gradually gets worse until the point where you cant stand it anymore, and you go to the hospital, but it's nothing that would just happen in a second :wink:

[Caxis]

Never heard of something like that.. Rather interesting though. Hope you don't suffer another one.

[PumpkinPete112]

This makes me glad to be a "bigger" kid

[splatmster24]

This makes me glad to be a "bigger" kid

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bigger as in........?

 

 

 

:P

[tzone92]

Wikipedia says that spontaneous pneumothoraxes are caused by burst blebs. A bled is an imperfection in the lining in the lung.

[Nadril]

 

This makes me glad to be a "bigger" kid

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

bigger as in........?

 

 

 

:P

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Glad to hear your ok now Adam, sounds scary O_O.

[kido14]

Yea I'm definitely going to be way paranoid since I'm tall and skinny. Sounds like an interesting experience though xD. Glad you're (kind of?) better now =P.