got a pneumothorax on tuesday, did not realize it until friday when i went to the hospital. they told me that my lung probably collapsed 15% - 30% on tuesday and i didnt realize i was having trouble breathing until it collapsed 100% on friday. spent 6 hours in the emergency room, and they inserted a tube in my left side under my armpit to drain all the air which caused the lung to collapse. a lot of pain, but im getting through it. going to get the tube clamped on tuesday and if the lung doesnt collapse, ill get the tube out on wednesday. has anyone had this happen to them? been taking alot of ibuprofen to ease the pain.
Dude, was it a spontaneous thing, or did you crash and eat it hard? they are really bad things to get especially in the later stages where your internal organs can move to one side, and you could have a possible Tension Pneumothorax which in the late signs can show up with your trachea moving to one side of your neck, rice crispy like feeling on your chest and neck, and possible aortic seperation due to the pressure... glad you are doing ok now...
Never had one. It sounds bad. I'm glad you went to the hospital when you did. I'd probably freak if I ever developed trouble breathing. The only shortness of breath I ever experience is accompanied by tachycardia, diaphoresis and the impending approach of a summit. I hope you feel better soon.
I had a partial lung collapse due to pnuemonia several years ago. My chest just started getting tighter and tighter over a period of a few hours until I went to the ER figuring my heart was 'having issues'. Very painful even though it was diagnosed much earlier than the OP's. Was able to clear it up with a quick round of Z-Max. Scary and not a fun evening #-o
Had one when I was early 20's. Just sitting on the couch, chillin'. Immediate severe pain. Thought I was having a heart attack. Drove to the ER, spent 3-4 days in the hospital. The Doc said it was spontaneous and common among people my height, age, weight, etc. Wierd though. Ran the drains for a couple days after that. Since then, all good. Got a few lumps from where the drains were though.
i dont know. tuesday i felt a little short of breath and had pain all over my left part of my back and on my sternum, and then friday it was unbearable pain. spontaneous. a friend of mine gave me a bear hug that was pretty rough on tuesday, but i dont know if that would provoke a lung collapse. the doctor told me that it happens to tall skinny guys around their 20s
I recived a pneumothorax when I biffed it on BVD at El Morrow. I took an impact to the chest when I did a superman over the bars and my chest landed on a rock. It was excruciatingly painful, and I only had a 10% collapse, but I also suffered cracked ribs along with it. This is a serioulsly painful injury to get on the trail, but I manged to pedal back to my car. I went to the ER where I received morphine and later a contrast media for the CT scan. A few hours later I had an alergic reaction to one of those drugs, turned red, got hives, and my face and lips swellwed up. On top of all the internal pain I also had to deal with the allergic reaction on the outside. I was in pure misery, but the Vicodin helped take the edge off. To make a long story short, the reaction went away within a week, but took a while before I looked normal. The cracked ribs remained painful for about 6 weeks, and I was back on my bike by the 4th week. Moral of the story; know your envelope and don't push through it.
Sorry to say, grasshopper, been there... done that! Took a 70 ft swan dive off of Strawberry Peak Trail several years back. Broke ribs, fractured ankles, wrists and fingers. Ended up getting air lifted out to hospital. There they sewed up my face and ear with 147 stitches. No pain killers! Just to add insult to injury they stuck a needle in my side and let the air out and re-inflated my right lung. That explained why I could hardly breath. Left it in all night. Lung sealed itself and they removed the tube the next day... The worst part of all this is phoning my wife (Ranger Nancy) from the ER... "Honey, I was just riding along...." The good news is that you will heal... the bad news is that it will take a while... try not to laugh, cough or fart!
DAYUM!!! Never heard of such a thing. Eff that! Fortunately I was never tall or skinny in my 20's. Actually I have never been skinny period. Just having the breath knocked out of me a dozen times or so over the years is all of the breathing issues I ever want to have.
I had this happen to me twice. The first time it happened I was eighteen years old. I'm 6'1" and I was pretty skinny back then so I had all the typical traits for the spontaneous pneumothorax. I had the chest tube for about a week and my lung sealed. Nine months later I was snowboarding at Bear Mountain. As I was sitting down on the slope waiting for my friend to catch up, I started feeling those tightening pains in my shoulder, back and chest that I knew all too well from the previous incident. I hadn't fallen or anything that day, the lung just collapsed on its own. I drove back down the mountain to Orange/Santa Ana and went straight to Western Med. This time I had to get surgery. I have three scars on the left side of my body. The biggest scar is on my chest and looks like it could pass for a gunshot wound. I had a long recovery from the surgery and I have never experienced as much pain as I did during those two days after my surgery. I hear most people recover with just the chest tube and the surgery is usually never needed. Good luck, get better soon.
