Chest Tube Initiation

So, let's get back to the ER story....

I walk through the ER doors for the second time in two days and get immediately taken back into a sheet-walled ER room.

The doc walks in and explains that 20% of my left lung has collapsed and in order to fix it, he will need to insert a straw-sized chest tube that will be inserted in the side of my chest, extend down through my ribs and into my chest cavity. There, the tube will release the air that is trapped inside my chest cavity, that was preventing my lung from re-inflating.

Side note: When your lung collapses, it releases air and then closes back up. Your chest cavity is air tight, so the released air has no where to go.

I tell the Dr. to do what he needs to. By this time I was so tired of the pain I was willing to do whatever to alleviate it.

I was provided a little topical anesthetic to numb my skin, and that was it. They are not really able to numb this chest tube process.

So I roll over on my right side, and the Dr. begins to insert the chest tube on the upper-left side of my chest, below my arm bit. He navigates through my ribs and down towards my lung, and hits my chest wall.

Your chest wall is about the same consistency as a basketball, so it's not easy to poke through.

It took the Dr. nearly putting all his weight on the chest tube to finally push the tube through my chest wall.

The process had already hurt considerably, but pushing through my chest wall was extremely painful.

Once the tube was inserted, Dr. hooked up a little hand operated pump thing and proceeded to suck out nearly 2-liters of air from my chest cavity.

As he did so, I felt instant relief.

Although I was still in pain and discomfort following the procedure, it was much more comfortable.

And that was it. They sent me on my way.

I was pretty physically drained for a while following this whole ordeal. It probably took me about a month before I felt like myself again. It was hard for me to climb a flight of stairs or go for an extended walk, for those first few weeks.

But I eventually made it back to full strength. I quickly put this experience behind me, and frankly, it didn't cause me to much concern that this might happen again in the future. And why should I be concerned? Upon asking the ER Dr., he didn't indicate any real worry that this would be a re-occurring problem.

Little did I know I had three more to go.