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Originally Posted by Tinker'sMommy  THANK YOU YT FAMILY FOR ALL YOUR PRAYERS AND POSITIVE THOUGHTS FOR MY SON AND MY FAMILY..............TATUM'SMOM, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENED TO MY HEALTHY 13 YEAR OLD, HE HAD THE CHEST TUBE IN FOR 10 DAYS AND NOTHING, SO FINALLY YESTERDAY HE HAD SURGERY AND LOSS PART OF HIS LUNG DUE TO THE BLEBS NOT LETTING THE LUNG HEAL, WELL MY SON DOES HAVE SOME ON HIS LEFT SIDE AS WELL BUT NOT POPPED OBVIOUSLY,  I FEEL SO CONFUSED BECAUSE HE HAS ALWAYS BEEN SO HEALTY, HE JUST TURNED 13 A MONTH AGO AND HE IS 117 LBS AND 5' 7" TALL SO THEY SAY HE FITS THE CRITIRIA  . I HOPE THE ONES ON HIS LEFT SIDE DONT POP, BEFORE THIS I NEVER KNEW OF SUCH ILLNESS, SPONTANEOUS PNEUMOTHORAX NOW HE HAS 2 CHEST TUBES IN AND THEY ARE SAYING HE SHOULD BE READY TO GO HOME BY FRIDAY....WAS YOUR RECOVERY AS QUICK?? HE JUST HAD SURGERY AND IS IN ALOT OF PAIN |
Oh, wow. I came back here hoping to hear a much better story. But what you're saying scares me even more knowing that one day my other side could have this same problem. I didn't want to go into too much boring detail the first time in case your son's problem wasn't the same as mine but.... When I first got to the hospital (and yes, I drove myself from home to the dr. that day - an hour trip - and the only discomfort I had was a little pain in my shoulder which I thought was "gas" but then after x-rays at the clinic the dr. made me call someone from work to drive me to the hospital - that's when I realized it may be more serious than I thought) they put a teeny tiny chest tube in (right there in my bed) and hooked me up to a machine. They took x-rays every morning (right there in my bed) and when my lung didn't reinflate after a few days, they finally put in a big tube (yep, right there in my bed with nurses holding my hand - it hurt like a BIG booger!). For 2 weeks exactly I was hooked up to this machine, not able to leave my room, with only enough connection to get to the bathroom. Finally the dr. decided that he would do this procedure (all the words escape me now) that involved blowing a powder substance into the lung which was supposed to sear the outside of the lung to the wall of the cavity around it. Apparently this was to be an extremely painful procedure but they need you "awake" so they gave me rohipnol (sorry, just spelling it like it sounds). Found out later that my husband was extremely upset seeing me that way because he says I was in excrutiating pain during all of this but luckily for me, I didn't remember anything afterwards (although he definitely did!). The next thing I knew I was waking up in my room the next morning and the nurse was coming in. When I asked for something to drink she said I couldn't have anything because I was going in for surgery. WHAT??!! My husband had not had a chance to tell me yet. Turns out the lung surgeon had just realized that I had been in the hospital for 2 weeks already (he thought it had just been a week) and he couldn't believe that they had held off on surgery that long. The surgery went well in closing all the blebs but when I woke up in my room, I thought I was dying. Turns out I was having a reaction to the pain medicine (Nubain - sp?) and everytime they would put it in my IV, I would feel like I was laying on a hot griddle - all my nerves were on fire. After 3 times of this, they finally called the dr. - my mom finally demanded it - and he switched my pain meds. Much better after that. I think I went home 2 days later. Yes, the recovery is very painful. I had two kids at home (ages 5 & 7) that for 2 weeks my husband had been taking care of while he worked out of town - thank God for grandmas too! I had to stay home for 6 more weeks recovering and basically just lived on the couch and in bed. I lost some weight I couldn't afford to lose and it took a very long time before I could stretch my arms back over and behind my head. It's been 7 years now (this all happened during the 9/11 time - I was in the hospital watching that on tv) and my scar, which is probably about 4-5 inches long, below my arm pit - plus the big "x" chest tube scar - is still sensitive at times but other than that, I feel pretty normal. My biggest fear is the "ticking time bomb" on the other lung and it took me a long time to not think about it daily.
I do understand your confusion because my family felt the same way. It sounds like your son is having a much rougher time though. It's scary for me to think that I could have lost part of my lung and that's probably going to cause him some extra pain for a while. You almost don't realize what that kind of trauma (stapling the blebs closed or taking off part of the lung) feels like when recovering. It is very painful. I wasn't lucky enough to be able to take Vicodin or similar meds when I went home because they made me sick (and oh, how it hurt to throw up!) so hopefully he gets some good meds and is able to make a full recovery very quickly.
I've never personally talked to someone with this exact problem (although my parents heard of a few) so I'm sorry if this is SO long. I probably should have just put it in a PM but I thought others might want to hear some more about this problem. If you want to call me to talk, I would love to talk to you. Just PM me and I'll give you my number. I'll be sending healing thoughts to your son. Just let me know if you want to talk.