Pneumothorax Support Group
A pneumothorax (or collapsed lung) is a medical emergency caused by the collapse of the lung within the chest cavity. It can result from: a penetrating chest wound, barotrauma to the lungs, spontaneously (most commonly in tall, slim young males who smoke), chronic lung pathologies including emphysema, asthma, acute infections, chronic infections (tuberculosis, cancer).
wow... i have felt this fear and worry for so long all by myself!!! I never knew support groups for this even existed, as soon as I clicked join I balled my eyes out. I'm a 22 year old girl and it's going to be 8 years in August that I had my right lung completely collpased and I had the chest tube and later received surgery. I was in the hospital for 9 days and it was COMPLETE HELL. It didn't help that the doctors were confused as to why a 15 year old girl had a collapsed lung. To be honest, I was too young to even comprehend what was even going on, all i knew was that I was lucky to still be alive. I went 3 and a half days without getting medical help. My family has asthma so they believed it was an asthma attack when i complained about it. I was too young to even think it was life threatening. I live in constant fear and my anxiety doesn't let me go past six months without a chest xray. The day I woke up from surgery they told me I had a couple of tiny blebs on the other lung (my left one) BUT they mentioned that it was too small to even worry about it. Seven years later, and i still worry about them growing and possibly me having another horrible experience in the ER. It's nice to know there is more people who have experienced this weird medical injury. I loved reading your experiences and knowing im not alone!
Mine was two and a half years ago and woke me up at about 3:00 AM with chest pain that was so bad I couldn't move. It took me an hour to get a call to the EMS folks and get to the hospital. Mine was a total collapse of my right lung, the whole right side was empty except for a blob about the size of a ping-pong ball.
After X-rays and a CT scan the chest tube was put in - no numbing injections or anything for pain - just and incision and inserting the tube. When it was over i mentioned to the ER doc about the pain and his response was "I didn't realize you were so sensitive."
I worry about the next one. My doctors have reduced the pressure on my sleep apnea machine (I have severe complex sleep apnea) so the efficacy is reduced and my sleep is poorer.
Hang in there. You are young and healthy and likely won't have another.
Now you know what one feels like so get the EMS and the ER right away. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
It's better and be wrong than to not go and be in real trouble.