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?
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.
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.
Man I hope they found better ways to do the surgery in the last 30 years.
this was the worst thing i have ever gone through in my life yet. I still have the tube in me
I’ve had VATS twice now. One in 2019 and one in 2021. Both were for a pleurodesis as the pneumothoraxes I experienced refused to self resolve. Zero regrets on both, but I didn’t have a choice, really.
Only pain I was left with is slight discomfort in my left upper chest region if I inhale too deeply while reaching up for things, and some nerve damage that results in a localized burning numbness that extends slightly into my armpit if I press above my right breast. Nerve damage came from the second.
I did have nerve damage from the first that left me numb in a candy bar shape right under my ribs on my left side for a year or so. The numb burning above my breast comes and goes in severity but the severe end has been weakened more and more with time.
I was able to return to normal life. Exercise isn’t an issue as long as I avoid over extending my arms upward. Basically no straining to reach stuff on my left side. I haven’t been swimming in many years, but I can imagine large, powerful strokes could cause me some discomfort.
Life is back to normal for me now, but I do have some anxiety that crops up with chest pains. The worst part of it all in my experience was the chest tubes.
Hope this helps.
Why is your thorax so leaky in the first place? I thought pneumothorax only happens after relatively severe injuries.
I have no idea. I was diagnosed with primary spontaneous pneumothorax
I’m not a doctor at all, so I’ll assume, you have a tiny-caliber sniper following you.
I have a number of small scars from my surgery for this and when people would ask me how I got my scars id whisper “Snipers man, snipers”
I’m fifteen years post surgery on both sides. Had blebs and bullae removed and a mechanical VATS (no talc) a few weeks apart.
There were complications with one surgery and I ended up having an unplanned thoracotomy which took a while longer to heal, but beyond a very cool scar, I have had no real noticeable health changes and am very glad I had it done.
I’m not sure what VATS involves but after my 2nd one they removed a bit of the top of my collapsed lung. After everything healed, I it didn’t feel any different than before. So no pain or any restrictions even when doing pretty involved sports.
Same thing they did to me for my first one. Took out roughly a quarter of my left lung and did a pleurodesis cause it was a really bad hole from what I understand.
I had 4 pneumothoraxes when I was 14-15, 3 on my left, 1 on my right. After the one on my right (#4) the surgeon recommended a pleurodesis to permanently fix my left lung to my chest wall. Basically they rough up the skin between your chest and lung, then fuse them together with talc.
Recovery was excruciating, the first 3 days were the worst with a drainage tube stuck out the back of my chest, and once I got home it was weeks of taking it very easy, slowly expanding my lung capacity.
That was 15 years ago, since then I’ve had no pneumothorax requiring surgery (had a couple of minor ones on my right that rectified themselves), and it hasn’t stopped me from working out, both cardio and strength training. It has definitely reduced my lung capacity and I did have to go to a physio to relearn to breathe from my diaphragm, I’ll never be an athlete, but I wasn’t going to be one before my lungs collapsed in the first place. It also means scuba diving and anything with big pressure differentials on my body are out of the question, but that wasn’t something I was interested in to begin with. Overall, I’m still able to do the things I want to, I’m slightly aware of my reduced lung capacity when I think about it, and I have to work harder on my cardio to achieve a similar result to others, but do not regret it.
If your doctor is recommending it, and if these are regularly occurring, particularly with no obvious cause, I would take it. Two in a year is a lot lower than what I had, and the surgeon only offered the pleurodesis once the right side collapsed as that significantly increased my chances of both happening at the same time. Not sure what the medical advice is these days but in my case they were adamant about not doing it unless it posed a serious risk of both collapsing or if the air volumes were large - from memory my first was over 1L, subsequent were always smaller. Maybe ask what the risks of NOT having the surgery are, or what risk threshold(s) you’ve crossed that are driving the decision to have surgery now, rather than after another.
