To people who had pneumothorax surgery, How are you doing now? (slrpnk.net)

submitted 1 year ago by Voltage@slrpnk.net to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Just had my 2nd lung collapse almost a year after the first . The doctors are recommending me to get a VATS surgery but I'm not sure what to expect post surgery. I have an appointment tomorrow to finalize my decision and I could ask them but I also want to know the experiences of people who had it done.

Do you regret doing it?

Are there any persistent pain even years after the surgery?

Were you able to return to normal life after, like swimming, lifting weights etc?

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[-] monsieur_hackerman@programming.dev 12 points 1 year ago

My lungs collapsed 6 times near the end of highschool, i am fairly tall and was on the skinnier side, and tall skinny lungs are prone to do that apparently.

They performed surgeries to pop the blebs (blistery things on the lungs i guess) on my lungs and put some powder between my lungs and the rib cage to "glue" them up during the bleb healing. No idea if it was video assisted though.

Haven't had any serious issue since then. I was training for a marathon before hurting my calf from not stretching, and then i joined a competitive rowing team, so id say no barriers from that standpoint.

For me at least, it seems after an especially violent puking session, my lungs can lightly collapse, or at least there's a correlation there. This only happened after a night of fairly stiff drinking so i don't do that anymore.

The surgeries were about 14 years ago, and i can't imagine how many chest tubes i would have had if i didn't get them. For me it was great, i hope they help you out similarly.

[-] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I have pretty much the exact same experience, but mine was 30 years ago. If I do something extreme I can still get a partial collapse, but they always heal and aren't too bad. The surgery is, honestly, the worst thing ive ever experienced (this includes later cancer surgeries) but was worth it in the end.

[-] Voltage@slrpnk.net 4 points 1 year ago

Man I hope they found better ways to do the surgery in the last 30 years.

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