lung issues

[BrianR]

Thanks to all! Much appreciated... I'll have my laptop with me so I can keep an eye on you guys... :-)

Best of luck VDub. Something tells me you'll surprise the docs with your recovery time. Afterall, you've been practicing resilience for some time now!

Brian

[mishb]

Will be sending healing vibes your way vdub, however I know all will be well and will go just as planned.

You have all of us, behind you

[BookNut]

Healing thoughts and prayers coming your way!! Hope to hear from you soon after surgery.

[MikeG-2012]

Thanks to all! Much appreciated... I'll have my laptop with me so I can keep an eye on you guys... :-)

Here's your new Avatar then VDub:

V-Dub All Seeing Eye copy copy.jpg

We all know you're out there watching us, making sure we behave! (-8 LOL!

[Jaha]

I am wishing you all the best on your surgery and recovery. Take real good care to do what the Docs tell you to do. Please keep us all up-to-date of your progress. You will be driving around in your car, before you know it. My thoughts and prayers are with you.

[vdub]

Thanks, Mike! That works nicely! :-)

[MikeG-2012]

Thanks, Mike! That works nicely! :-)

Glad you liked it. Trying to do something to make others smile at least once a day, and you were the one I picked the other day.

Hope you're recovering nicely.

[vdub]

The surgery is done and I'm still alive. The surgery took 4 hours and I'm now in the ICU. The nurses want me to blow on this thing that expands my lungs, so I'm trading "blows" for orange sherbert ice cream. I think that's a fair trade.

The cause of the paralyzed diaphragm is damage to the phrenic nerve on my right side. There’s no way of repairing that nerve, so the diaphragm will always be paralyzed and nothing can correct that (big bummer), so the right lung will never actually work.


The natural state of the paralyzed diaphragm is in the up position, that is, the exhaled position. If you inhale, then you are telling the diaphragm to tense up and pull down to create a cavity in your chest which the lung expands into and causes you to “take a breath”.


What the surgeon did was start grouping the diaphragm together and slowly making it tighter and tighter such that it would constantly give me an “open cavity” in my chest which the lung will expand to fill up. Unfortunately, the lung only expands once during surgery and then is left to be always expanded. The diaphragm will never move again and will never actually operate properly.


The benefit of this procedure is to take advantage of the left “good lung” and give the good lung additional “reservoir space” to put air into. As the good lung expands, some air will flow into the bad lung. In that way, I can take a larger-than-normal breath of air, but not as much as if I had two lungs working.


Prior to the surgery, my lung capacity was about 46% of normal. After the surgery, it “should” increase to about 70% of normal, but will never be totally normal. No more marathons for me. Actually, even tying shoes will still be a struggle, because as you bend over, you tend to compress the lung cavity.


I haven’t hit the wall yet as far as pain, but they tell me it is coming. Usually, you don’t get the pain surge until a couple days after the surgery when all the surgery drugs wear off. But, in this case, it’s a bit worse. The nurses have been telling me to prepare for really bad pain beyond the typical pain from when the drugs are out of your system. Eh, we’ll see. I have a pretty high threshold of pain, so I don’t think it will be all that bad – not to mention, I’ve been on a regimen of 6-8 hydrocodone or tramadol tabs per day for about 5 years. We'll see....

[Debbie C]

Sorry to hear that news vdub, Is the damage to the nerve from wg ? So they weren't able to "move" things around back to where they should be to give your lung more space ??? I'm just going by the pics.
You will have to start kneeling down instead of bending over for things (tying shoes )
I don't see how you feel any pain taking that much hydrocodone a day...1 knocks me on my arse ! I hope the pain isn't too bad for you. Do you know how long you have to stay there ? Keep us posted and enjoy the sherbert !

[Alysia]

Thanks God you are after the surgery, vdub.

You "sound" good for someone only few hours after a big surgery and still in the ICU.

I am sorry that they couldnt fix the lung all the way. To encourage you, watch this interview with Peter Marshal, telling how he climbed Mt. Ranier with only 60 percent lung functions:

Fighting Arthritis | Breakfast Television Vancouver

I hope that the pain will be bearable. Dont allow them to give you Fentanyl for pain. It suppress the breathing. Also, it is important to reduce the hydrocodone VERY GRADUALLY.

Keeping you in my thoughts & prayers. Please update us. Sending my love ♡