Well, I woke up yesterday feeling fine, but not half an hour later, I felt that tell-tale “bee sting” pinch inside my chest. I had chemical pleurodesis last December and have felt relatively fine while on the mend (still getting pain when I yawn and occasionally when I hiccup). So, as a precaution, I went back to the hospital. I had an X-Ray done and the doctor came in relatively quickly and told me that they saw nothing out of the ordinary, aside from the scars from my pleurodesis.
Last night and today, though, I’ve had what feels like, and probably is, tiny bubbles moving around my chest. They’re all still localized to the area where I felt the bleb pop, but it’s still really a disconcerting feeling.
Is this just something I’ll have to get used to?
I’ve felt that tell-tale pinch before now, but I’ve never felt any of these bubbling sensations from them, at least post op. I have a feeling that, since the pinch was so, for lack of a better term, prevalent, and lasted so long, it was probably a big one (or, bigger one, I should say). Like I said, it started shortly after waking up and it continued long after I got home from the hospital six hours later. That’s the longest that the pinching feeling has lasted for me. The rest of the time it has been no more than an hour or so. I’m also thinking that, since I had the chemical pleurodesis, the feeling of a bleb popping might be amplified? I don’t even know.
I’m also thinking that the bleb probably popped because I recently came down with a cold that has had me coughing up a storm for a few days, now.
As a side note, I remember reading that people with a BMI of 21 or less have a much greater chance of having a pneumothorax and at the time of my first four, my BMI was around 17 to 18. Since the surgery, though, I’ve been able to raise it up to 21.
I’m really sad, too, because I was really looking forward to writing up a post for reaching the six month post op mark and letting everyone know that I was doing fine. Then, pretty much on the day, this happens.
MiseryFields 