Pnumothorax questions

[Tinkerbell801]

I'm glad I found this page and am hoping someone might be able to help me. My husband has been a firefighter for 17yrs. He recently attended a really bad fire that made it on the national and international news. At the same time of this fire we also got a pet cat. Hubby had previously said he thought he might be slightly allergic to the cat. However we didn't worry too much as he had a cat when we first met. As the weeks went by (since the fire and since getting the cat) his coughing and allergic reactions seemed to get worse and worse. Then three weeks ago today he was standing in the kitchen violently coughing when he said he felt a "pop" and then he clumsy breathe. My husband suffered a pnumothorax exactly three weeks ago today. I took him to hospital when he was struggling to breathe. The hospital did an aspiration in the top part of his chest and said he could go home. Three days later he seemed worse again to me so I took him back and this time they put a chest drain in. The chest drain seemed to have done its job within less than half an hour but they left the drain in a total of 24hrs anyway. He x rayed and scanned many many times over the course of his stay and was told his lung had fully expanded. He stayed in hospital a week and was given intravenous antibiotics, nebuliser throughout his stay as they said he had a nasty chest/lung infection. He was sent home and has been home coming up to two weeks. As soon as he came home he started wheezing again we both panicked a bit and went straight back to hospital but once he arrived his breathing seemed to improve. They x rayed him AGAIN and said his lung was still fully expanded. (We did rehome our cat as we thought this was contributing) my questions and worries are:

He still coughs every now and then but not all the time like he did before the pnumothorax, more like a cough to clear your throat etc? Should he still Be doing this? He has been prescribed some tablets by the doctor to clear the mucus.

He saw the doctor a few days ago, she listened to his chest and said it was clear.

If there was anything else IE cancer they would have picked it up by now? He has had so many scans and x rays AND blood taken.

He says he feels tired still is this normal?

How long until he doesn't feel tired?

I'm absolutely terrified of this happening again! Does it always happen again?

He is eager to get back to work but says he feels "unfit" I am really worried about him going back to soon and causing another Pneumothorax

We do have an appointment with the respiratory consultant but not until January 4th.

[cofdrop-UK]

Hi Tinkerbell,

Sorry to hear your very brave husband is struggling so very much. I have a different lung condition but it bodes well for your husband that nothing has shown up on the scans. It is the scan that would show up any underlying conditions, which it doesn't appear they have found any.

I hope your DH's consultation goes well on the 4th but realise it probably seems like an age away for you both at the moment. I am not sure how long it takes to recover from a pneumathorax and I think you might find it useful to talk to one of the nurses at BLF. There number can be found on the home page but I know some kind person will pop the number on for you.

Good luck to you both.

love cx

[hypercat54]

Some kind person has 03000 030 555. They are open office hours. x

[Tinkerbell801 in reply to hypercat54]

Thankyou x

[cofdrop-UK in reply to hypercat54]

Thank you H - your good deed for the day. You could have also told me how to spell their

cx

[hypercat54 in reply to cofdrop-UK]

Lol cof you did the really good answer 'Their' - belonging to. 'There' for anything else xx

[cofdrop-UK in reply to hypercat54]

Thanks hun. I know the rules, that's why I was ticked off when I noticed it

xx