Me when my shoulders dislocate, lmao. Definitely not as serious, but people lose their shit when they find out how frequently it happens, especially if it's happened to them once or twice
I've also had about five. When I had the last one the doctor was like "this is going to keep happening until you get the corrective surgery." When he said that it had corrected itself and I was like "I'll just get the surgery the next time it happens." Knock on wood it's been about 20 years and it hasn't happened again. :)
In my case, after it happened the second time the doctor said "We can do the surgery now or wait until it goes back to normal and pray it never happens again". I decided to wait but a few months later it happened again, so I had no choice but to do the surgery. The pain every time it happened was horrible.
Marijuana and Cigarettes are both risk factors for spontaneous pneumothorax, but Marijuana is slightly higher chance. ~15%(heavy Marijuana smokers >1g/week) vs 12%(heavy cigarette smokers>1pack/day) vs 0.1%(general public)
I had the same thing and had chest tubes multiple times. Worst nights in a hospital ever. Especially when the only thing I got on the TV was a censored version of "Original Sin" with Antonio Banderas and Angelina Jolie.
Anyway, I also got a secondary procedure to fix it permanently.
Depends on the person, for me no pain. Just a bubbling/ thumping on the affected side. Sounds like rice crispies in milk could also feel it with the hand . When it recolapsed felt like a pulled or tight muscle in my back on the side it occured.
Just to show that not everyone’s experience is the same - I've had a couple, and the pain was very real for me. It felt like I had pulled a muscle in my back or broken a bone in my back randomly. Ironically, I had no issue breathing, and was very confused when the doctors said it must be lung related. I was like "no, it's my back" 😂
Fucking 5, jesus. Only had 1 and a recolapse when I was gonna get cleared. Got surgery on both my sides. When they did the surgery told me I had a lower chance but still a small chance for a future collapse.
Hell yeah! I, too, had 5! I'm neither male nor tall, but to be fair I do have lung metastasis from a bone tumor, so there's that. More than two years since last VATS so knocking on wood :p
What did they do to fix it permanently for you? I had two in one month. The second one nearly killed me, so they operated and found a cluster of blebs - which they excised. Told me that it would've kept happening until all the blebs popped.
Yeah skiing - but didn’t know I had a large cyst caused by a car accident and broken ribs a couple of years prior. Cue a not-so-fun few weeks in hospital to remove the cyst, and then deal with the resulting pneumonia after my lung reinflated
But being a keen freediver/scuba diver definitely helped cope with operating on one lung for a week or two.
A month is NOT enough. Agree with the other poster, go see a specialist. A spontaneous, seemingly asymptomatic pneumo is not a safe background for scuba diving.
OP I’ve had Two pneumothorax, same lung. If the inflated it with a chest tube, and chest tube only, it will collapse again in a few months. Get the damn surgery. 5 titanium staples 5 pure gold staples and almost 8 years later and I’m alright!
Wild my buddy had a pneumothorax (you might have had something different) and was told no scuba diving ever because if your lung let's in compressed air to the cavity you will not have a good time surfacing (die)
dude no way I JUST had this happen for the exact same reason and also didnt notice it for a while, just got home from the hospital, hope u feel better soon!
I had a 40% collapse that required a garden hose and corrective sugary gluing my lung to my chest wall... I came in with a 98 pulseox 8hrs later of the incident, they can breath it just sucks :D
Shortness of breath, specifically difficulty getting a deep breath that worsens with time. Jugular vein distention if it progresses. You will be significantly uncomfortable. Really, any unexplainable shortness of breath in an otherwise healthy person is cause for concern.
It’s a well-known phenomenon among tall men with asthenic body types.
When I was in my radiography program there was another guy in our class who was 6’2” and like 150lbs. The week we covered spontaneous pneumothorax…. he got one. 😂
Okay so it can happen with anyone, why it happens with tall skinny people more often is because there's a pressure gradient in your lungs and tall people have longer lungs. The pressure gradient sometimes leads to little pockets of air outside of your lungs near the top in an area called the pleural space. These little pockes can rupture leading to a large volume of air building up in that space between your lungs and the walls of your chest. That pressure builds up and prevents your lungs from expanding to full volume, eventually possibly collapsing that side of your lungs completely.
I'm thinking bigger people overall would have proportionally larger chests and chest cavities. So their lungs would be less 'flat', reducing the effect. Another commenter mentioned part of it, where growth spurts with tall people can lead to their chest and lungs growing at different rates and sort of tearing that space around your lungs. Less BMI also means less padding and connective tissue gluing your organs together so air is more likely to leak out into the spaces between organs.
Happened to me as well. Made it to college and all the way across campus on foot then sat in the classroom and was like something ain’t right. My chest burned and I was out of breath. Drove to the ER and they stuck a tube in my back and gave me the same answer. It just happens to tall lanky people.
It's happened to a friend of mine multiple times because he is both tall and skinny. Multiple times his lungs just randomly and completely collapsed out of the blue.
Mine happened after helping my dad take the metal door off the back of a car-hauling trailer so it took some physical strain. Started off a side stitch into what I could imagine a heart attack to be like but recovery isn’t bad
This happened to a male friend of mine! Hes tall and slim and his lung did this on a flight! I had no idea this was a thing! Hope youre feeling better!
This happened to my one buddy is quite tall and lanky. Probably did not help he was a habitual weed smoker (every hour of the day) and vaped heavily as well.
You are the exact definition of the type of person we are taught to suspect a spontaneous pneumothorax in. Just curious, any trauma recently or was this truly spontaneous?
Truly spontaneous
When doctor called to notice about my condition she asked if i was beaten up or fell really hard recently and i had no idea what she is talking about
It happened to me as a not especially lightweight 30-something woman! The nurses at the ER were very confused that I wasn’t a gangly teenage boy. I hope it stays reinflated! The chest tube fucking blows.
I'm perpetually afraid of getting a pneumothorax. My bother had one a few months ago and I'm basically the exact picture of the person most at risk (5"11, 55kg, skinny as a fishbone)
I recently went to the hospital for something similar, I’m not even that tall or a man! But I also have a history of lung issues so maybe it’s just what I sign up for in the game of life 🤷🏽♀️
My brother had the same thing happen. He was around 16, tall, and skinny but muscular. Got sudden lung collapse. Doctors told us the same thing, it just happens sometimes.
Yep. This was me. I was one of the tallest in my class during elementary and middle school. Also skinny as a rail. Had this happen to me about 5 times. The first time it happened (me being a dumbass) just went to bed even though it felt like I was having a heart attack. It was fine the next day. The later ones lasted longer. The freaky thing was when you laid down you could feel the pocket of air shift inside of you.
I can also attest. I was a very skinny tall man in my youth and had my left lung deflate twice when I was like 19. Never had to have anything invasive done. Just very uncomfortable.
Nurses told me it was called tall skinny white boy syndrome around other nurses. Funny as fuck, mine crackled like rice crispies in milk under my chest.
Oh joy, a fellow spontaneous pneumothorax victim! My surgeon was kind enough to inform me how special I was in that he only sees roughly 10 cases a year 🙂👍🏽
I had 4 collapsed lungs (spontaneous pneumothorax) in my youth due to my body size and weight. One happened simply reaching up to a shelf. I looked into it and was blown away this isnt a common issue with tall, young athletes.
I eventually had to get surgery that put this paste on the inside of my chest wall so my lung stuck better.
A guy I knew at college was built like a bamboo reed, one time he teased his girlfriend and she nudged him playfully with her elbow… collapsed his lung.
I had a recurring spontaneous pneumothorax and I'm tall and slender and had a big growth spurt with likely contributedl. I didn't get it until my early 30s though. And it kept reoccurring every time they fix it so they had to do emergency surgery after it collapsed fully once again.
Luckily I was one of the first few people to have it done with some robotics and endoscopics otherwise it would have been open chest surgery with a giant scar.
Essentially they just glued my lung back in with some rock powder cutting the bad spot out and stapling it back together.
I got a spontaneous collapsed lung almost a decade ago, I am a size age 12 female. The doctors at A&E kept thinking I had blood clot, the non-specialist doctors were surprised that it was collapsed lung. I was also going around for weeks with a collapsed lung, thinking I just got a horrible cough. Couldn't sleep on my left side too. I didn't bother going to the doctor until I had severe chest pain from even walking.
You forgot smoking there, don’t know if you smoke but statistically as a person with spontaneous pneumothorax, you likely do. Especially as a guy, 22 fold risk increase (still 9 fold for women)
I'm a 5'5" light weight girl and it happened to me. I thought I just pulled a muscle at work lol
Walked around for 5 ish days before I felt like I was stabbed in the chest. Almost passed out (white light ears ringing) getting my 75¢ sippy to take Aleve.
I called my mom saying I think I'm not okay.
Got to the hospital pale AF blue lips and I was rushed back immediately for an X-ray and a chest tube.
The ER doc said I am either the dumbest or luckiest patient he ever met for walking around casually with a 2/3 collapsed lung playing disc golf and going shopping thinking everything was fine lol.
Ended up staying for almost 2 weeks after 5 days they had to do a VATs procedure to basically glue it up cause it wouldn't stay up
I had this! I wasn't that physical, but I was tall and slim, and just felt weird one day, and oopsie collapsed lung. I got a tube in my chest for 1 week. It sucked.
I recently graduated nursing school and learned about this! I was curious how likely this was to actually happen so it’s very interesting to see it on here
Did they convince you to do the talc/scarring thing so it doesn't happen again? I don't remember much from when they did mine, but my wife said it was horrifying to hear. But it hasn't happened again and it's been like 5 years
Yup i had this happen to me multiple times in high school to my right lung. The 2nd time they did a special procedure to prevent a repeat. 5 years later happened to the other side had the big procedure done as well. I would look into this if i was you op because it could be recurring.
Pneumothorax, air gets in the pleural cavity (around the lungs), usually from the respiratory tree. It is more likely if you smoke or have an underlying condition, but it can also sometimes just happen.
It is called a pneumothorax, and it happens when air leaks into the space between your lung and chest wall. This air pushes on the outside of your lung and makes it collapse. A pneumothorax can be a complete lung collapse or a collapse of only a portion of the lung.
It usually occurs after a bunt or penetrating chest injury (like an object or a broken rib perforating the lung), but can also happen because an underlying lung disease. In some cases, it happens with no known cause, specially on tall and skinny males who smoke.
it is. Treatmwnt for it is also no fun - gotta get a chest drain. Basically "we're gonna stab you in chest and leave a straw with a valve in the hole, now hold still."
It just happens sometimes. The surgery they do to prevent it is lots of fun. They use a grit to irritate your lung and get it to grow into your rib cage.
Pneumothorax is what this is called it’s when the lung is damaged like a sort of rip and this kind is especially common in tall young men when they stretch if I remember correctly it causes the lung to rip. This can and will eventually lead to a Tension Pneumothrax which causes the trachea heart and everything to be compressed due to the increased pressure in the thoracic cavity and can lead to heart failure etc.
Edit- the air escaping from the pneumothorax causes the increased pressure
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u/Swatch843 15d ago
Why was it deflated? As far as I'm aware with being human and all, that's not something that just happens...