I have Spontaneous Pneumothorax!!! ...Cool

jerkinabottle · Eligible to vote! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 24 Gender:

Hello. I've had quite a reality check today. Have you ever been in a situation where you were forced to recognize your own mortality? Some of us become so nonchalant in our existence that we erroneously begin to believe we are going to live forever. As for me, that's just not possible for me to think that after today.
On my trip to see my probation officer I had extreme chest pain. It was on my left side where my heart is. It felt like a 500lb person was sitting on the left side of my chest. The pain was so bad that I immediately thought to myself, I'M HAVING A HEART ATTACK!. It was extremely hard to breath because of the pain. It felt like a force was acting upon the outside of my left lung, making me incapable of breathing deeply. I was put in the ambulence and driven to the Kaiser Emergency Hospital in Vallejo.
I was diagnosed with "spontaneous pneumothorax." In layman's terms this means "collapsed lung." It just so happened that a cyst, airbubble, or bleb in my left lung ruptured and allowed air to escape into my chest cavity which put pressure on my left lung, causing it to partially collapse. It was a 20 percent collapse. I felt like fainting when the doctor told me this. He said that I would have to go through a procedure in which surgeons drill a hole in my side, insert a chest tube into my chest cavity, and suck out the escaped air so that my left lung can reexpand to fill the entire chest cavity.
Luckily, this never happened. This was because the amount of collapse was significantly small; only 20 percent and a small pneumothorax will resolve on its own in 1 to 2 weeks. So, here I am, typing away on my computer while drugged up on Vicodin. Tomorrow I will go to be ex-rayed again. They are going to compare the X-ray I got today to the one tomorrow to see if my body is fixing this problem itself. If not, I may have to go through the procedure.
To tell you the truth, I'm scared. I've never been in a situation like this. I hope that I don't have to undergo that type of procedure.
I just wanted to let you all know what has been going on in my life.

God Bless you all

Art

Mr. Pessimistic

Sorry to hear this Art! Hope you get better soon!

I am still immortal...it was nice having you in the club while it lasted!

Mr. P.

The one thing of which I am positive is that there is much of which to be negative - Mr. P.

I came to get down, I came to get down. So get out ya seat and jump around - House of Pain

HEY! Is that a ball in your court? - Mr. P

I came to kick ass and chew Bubble Gum...and I am all out of Bubble Gum - They Live, Roddy Piper

Chris OConnor

Art

Holy smokes! What a nightmare. I'm sure this has all scared the hell out of you. I'm really glad to hear you're ok, but please keep us posted. I've never heard of this problem before you mentioned it. Wow.

Chris


	HOME	ABOUT	BOOKS	VIDEOS	TRANSCRIPTS	LINKS	BLOGS	DONATE	CONTACT