gina_loufrisenda
New member
Ten years ago my lung collapsed for no good reason (spontaneous pneumothorax). For ten months I did not do anything for it. In other words, I lived through the pain and never saw a heathcare professional until 10 months after the first time I experienced the pain of the collapsed lung. (That is a long time to go with a collapsed lung). From a little research on the internet, I learned that the longer you go without treating it, the worse the recovery tends to be. This seems to have been true. My surgeon was Dr. Parvis Sadighi, who was the head of surgery at Berkshire Medical Center in Pittsfield, MA and a general, vascular and thoracic surgeon. I remember after the surgery he was disappointed and puzzled as to why I was taking so long to recover. I was in the hospital for three weeks or more.
When I went back to the hospital for check ups, my lung appeared fine in X-rays and normal/healthy when the stethoscope was applied to my lungs while breathing. However, my bad lung will hurt if I do moderate to strenuous exercise (but will stop hurting once I'm in shape). This is not such a big deal. The bigger deal is that ever since, I've been prone to nasty coughs that illicit from friends such responses as "you sure you don't have laryngitis or bronchitis?". The coughs often take awhile to go away and are often accompanied by phlegm. What's interesting about them is I can feel a tickle near the top of the lung (where the surgery was done?) I can't help but wonder if the scar tissue from surgery has made me more susceptible to nasty, hacking coughs. The tickle is what keeps me needing to cough. I don't feel the tickle in my other lung, and the tickle is always in the same place, so I feel like it's the lung and the surgery that have caused it to be prone to nasty and persistent coughs. If anyone knows anything about this or suggestions on how I could improve the situation, that'd be great.
Thanks
Jason
When I went back to the hospital for check ups, my lung appeared fine in X-rays and normal/healthy when the stethoscope was applied to my lungs while breathing. However, my bad lung will hurt if I do moderate to strenuous exercise (but will stop hurting once I'm in shape). This is not such a big deal. The bigger deal is that ever since, I've been prone to nasty coughs that illicit from friends such responses as "you sure you don't have laryngitis or bronchitis?". The coughs often take awhile to go away and are often accompanied by phlegm. What's interesting about them is I can feel a tickle near the top of the lung (where the surgery was done?) I can't help but wonder if the scar tissue from surgery has made me more susceptible to nasty, hacking coughs. The tickle is what keeps me needing to cough. I don't feel the tickle in my other lung, and the tickle is always in the same place, so I feel like it's the lung and the surgery that have caused it to be prone to nasty and persistent coughs. If anyone knows anything about this or suggestions on how I could improve the situation, that'd be great.
Thanks
Jason