On the day after my LD flap op I felt unwell bit of pain,a bit short of breath and raised pulse. It was found that I had a collapsed lung. The collapse was of the size where a chest drain could be inserted or they could wait and see. I chose the wait and see and was re xrayed the next day. Lung was still collapsed because air had got into the chest cavity during the op. My breast consultant thought the air would disperse during the next week or so. I was then visited by a chest consultant who said we could carry on with the wait and see approach. She has given me an appointment for her clinic on the 11th July. If I have to have a chest drain I will need to be admitted. I am otherwise recovering well. No pain now just slightly tight chest at times which I think could be the discomfort fron the reconstruction operation.She also said there was some shadowing. I had 25 rads last year. I also had a cough for a couple of months which had cleared up a few weeks before my op. It had been treated with antibiotics and I had been xrayed. Mentioned the shadowing to the ward sister before I left hospital. She said that if it was thought to be cancer they would have told me before I left hospital. Know I havent long to wait but this situation is worrying me. Has this sort of thing happened to anyone else? I know it cant be immediately dangerous or they would not have sent me home but is a complication I could do without.
Hi sunflower,
I have no experience of the collapsed lung problem you have - do hope the wait & see approach will work for you. I think you are asking about the shadow though - so my experience of that is that I had 35 rads on one side and 25 on the other and each time I was left with a shadow which they told me about and said it was probably damage from the rads. This was all some years ago now and has never developed into anything else. I certainly don’t notice any difference.
Dawn
xx
Hi Sunflower
A few weeks back now I went into the day clinic to have a port inserted under the skin on my chest. Unfortunately during the proceedure my lung was punctured. I sat for 6 days waiting for it to “fix itself” but it didn’t and I had to go into hospital for a drain to be fitted. I was okay the next day and released. I think you should have the drain and get it over and done with. There is enough yukkie stuff we have to make our bodies go through without prolonging extra problems.
Sorry I can’t be any help with the shadowing though. Hope it as Dawn says.
Inyanga
Hi,
There are 2 options for a chest drainone of which is more invasive than the other. A pigtail drain is a fine (1-2mm) bore tube that is inserted under local anaesthetic and quite often stays in for 24 hours how ever a chest drain is a bigger procedure. If the Drs feel your pneumothorax is small enough to resolve itself it is aswell to let your body do its own stuff! You need to be aware of increasing shortness of breath which may indicate that it is increasing in size rather than getting smaller. It is very common to allow small pneumothorax to reslove on its own.
Jano x
Went today to have last ordinary drain from back removed. Coped well with the walk to and from the car.Breathing is fine at the moment though when I take a very deep breath in I feel I am getting nearly all the way there first go. I think that is more to do with the breast surgery than anything else. My husband says that when I talk I have stopped catching my breath every so often. I will take any changes seriously and have my appointment next Monday to attend. If the pneumothorax had been big I dont think they would have given me options. I am now worrying more about the shadowing. I am otherwise recovering from the op well.Will walking about help the remaining air if there is any disperse.
If a pneumothorax is small (<20%) of the lung volume it is safe to see if it will expand itself or not. A good percentage of them will, and I am certain they would not have sent you home if it was a big pneumothorax. They can make people feel breathless even when they are quite small.
We now send people home from A&E with small spontaneous pneumothoraces, and back to the chest clinic in a few days.
If you do need a drain they these days they are very small and easily done. Usually in for 24-48hrs.
Nothing you can do to help the air be absorbed - that is something your body will just need to do by itself. Don’t push yourself to do too much if you arre feeling breathless and just had recent surgery.
It is quite normal to get an area of shadowing on the lung on the Xray if the radiotherapy hit the lung at all (and it often does to make sure it gets all of the breast). It causes a fibrosis type reaction (scarring) and that is seen on an Xray as a shadow. My oncologist reminded me of this the other day as we a planning my radiotherapy now.
I obviously understand your anxiety - and I hope that everything is OK with the repeat Xray - but just wanted to let you know there is an explanation for the shadow that wouldn’t mean bad news.
Hope you feel better soon xxxx