(Partially) collapsed lung - self heal?

[Gareth1974]

In May, I suffered a partially collasped lung (about 50%), as a complication of a pulmonary embolism. At the time, I was told that the lung would naturally heal, although it doesn't seem to have yet (still showed as collapsed on a X-ray in July and I still get out of breath easily). Has anyone got any experience of this? How long did the lung take to recover 'naturally'?

[Big Al.]

I had a spontaneous pneumothorax in my early twenties, collapsed right lung. In hospital for a week with a drain. Had a 60-40 chance of a occurrence, it never transpired.

It did self heal and as I remember no real after effects after a couple of weeks.

Luckily today some 40 odd years later, no further problems.

Hope all goes well for you.

[Gareth1974]

Big Al. said:

I had a spontaneous pneumothorax in my early twenties, collapsed right lung. In hospital for a week with a drain. Had a 60-40 chance of a occurrence, it never transpired.

It did self heal and as I remember no real after effects after a couple of weeks.

Luckily today some 40 odd years later, no further problems.

Hope all goes well for you.

Thanks for this - it seems as if they took action to correct your condition, by using the drain, they said to me than they had chosen not to do this as it's unpleasant, and I was in a bad way already with the pulmonary embolism. But I'm now unsure how long it will take to sort itself out without any intervention. Glad to hear that you've not had any long term issues with yours though.

[gasman712]

A simple primary pneumothorax may well heal without active measures, but persistence after 2 months and ongoing breathlessness probably suggest that you need further management.
British Thoracic guidelines are here: https://thorax.bmj.com/content/65/Suppl_2/ii18

Just to add that it may be that the decision to perform a chest drain of the pneumothorax when you are on anticoagulation for an embolus tipped the risks towards conservative management in the first instance but if it isnt gettting better...

Edited by gasman712 on Friday 30th August 12:47

[ClaphamGT3]

I partially collapsed my left lung playing rugby at the age of 37.

After a few weeks of seeing if it would self-heal, my thoracic consultant aspirated the chest cavity under local anaesthetic which cured it completely. A very quick & painless, if disconcerting!, procedure; I had it done at 9.30 and was back at work by 13.00 the same day.

[crofty1984]

My lung went about 20% down in my late teens. Recovered after about 3 weeks.

[Gareth1974]

gasman712 said:

A simple primary pneumothorax may well heal without active measures, but persistence after 2 months and ongoing breathlessness probably suggest that you need further management.
British Thoracic guidelines are here: https://thorax.bmj.com/content/65/Suppl_2/ii18

Just to add that it may be that the decision to perform a chest drain of the pneumothorax when you are on anticoagulation for an embolus tipped the risks towards conservative management in the first instance but if it isnt gettting better...

Edited by gasman712 on Friday 30th August 12:47

Thanks for this - it could well be the case that the medication I'm on was a factor in no action being taken for my lung. I'm hoping to come off the Apixaban next month, so this could open up some options.

I've yet to see a respiratory specialist - should get an appointment through following a CT scan I'm having on Friday. A&E doctors and my GP keep telling me not to worry about my lung, and that's it's possible to live with just one/or a damaged lung, but I'd ideally like to get back to how I was before - I used to enjoy going out on long bike rides with the 'fast' group from my cycling club, and I've had to give that up for the time being.

[HQB]

I am not a doctor nor medically qualified but after a ridiculous examination with a “Nurse Practitioner” what she said was an infection of Cellulitis and could be cured with antibiotics, turned out to be DVT in my leg discovered on Christmas Day 2013. The week I had sat in a chair waiting for the pills to work nearly killed me as I developed a pulmonary embolism in my lung. The hospital sorted it out with a ten day course of Klexaine followed by warfarin pills every day forever. The good bit is that my lungs work exactly as they did before all this and no ill effects BUT long distance flights are over for me now...a max of 90 mins is enough and that might be the same for you.

The good news I want to say is that you should recover back to normal..it took about a month to breathe normally and then was “gone” after about three months so be positive and you will get better...just watch those “nurses” who will never come near me ever again!!!

Good luck with all the tests.

Edited by HQB on Monday 16th September 00:00

[FatboyKim]

Three years late to the thread to contribute anything useful, I acknowledge, but was everything okay in the end?

I'm 30 and had several spontaneous pneumothoraxes roughly between ages 18-25. I think four or five in total, and they really have been spontaneous. I would accept it a little more if I was running a marathon or going hard in the gym, but one time I was driving, once I was just sitting watching TV, once I was playing golf, i.e. nothing strenuous but each time it was a call to 999 and being taken straight through to emergencies at the hospital. I remember the first time they put the oxygen mask on me in the back of the ambulance and were tapping my chest and back to listen for any anomalies and one paramedic excitedly said to the other 'Oooh it might be a pneumothorax, I've not had one of these before'! The worst time was a 2 day stay in hospital relying heavily on the oxygen.

It was difficult for a few weeks not being able to inhale fully, with the fear of opening the tear in the lung wall again and air escaping into the shoulder cavity (which causes the shoulder pain), and finding a comfortable position to sleep in was tricky. They warned me that the next time it happens, it'll mean a chest drain, no questions asked, which is just a big needle in the side of the ribcage to draw air out so nothing major. Thankfully, I've not had another occurrence and every consultant I saw just explained that it's by far most prevalent in 'growing young men' but also ocasioanlly seen when severe emphysema or COPD is also present. Ultimately, it is spontaneous (as the name obviously suggests) but if I do get a very rare pain in the chest nowadays I always have the immediate thought of 'oh sh#t, not again' hence me searching for this thread and just seeing if any other members had ever suffered from it out of interest.

Edited by FatboyKim on Monday 28th March 15:35