Pleural Effusion

[omargue]

Hello everyone, i am writing this for my wife who has suffered from a spontaneous pnemothorax converting to a Pleural Effusion 6 months ago. She had 3 surgeries, 2 chest tubes and Pleural Effusion surgery resulting in cutting part of her lung. Sorry i dont have more technical names of the procedures of what was done because all was done in Colombia and i cant translate specifics regarding to the names of procudures. She was hospitalized for 11 days where she underwent the 3 surgeries. This has been now 6 months which she has now recovered but still feels slight pain in her rib cage area. Before she had the pneumothorax she would always train in the gym with heavy weights. yesterday was the first day we went back to the gym and everything went good because we started light and focused on stretching. we did some abdominal crunches but nothing severe. since this morning she has had a pain inside her lower ribs. she thinks that it had to do with the situp/crunches that she did. we hope it is nothing severe because we would like some insight from others with experience. Thank you very much.

[Davy9]

The recent events you relate are a little vague. Is she experiencing rib pain just around the surgery site? If she is experiencing pain generally beneath the ribs then it may just be from the exercise itself. Apparently she was in excellent physical condition prior to the pneumothorax episode. But people decondition pretty quickly and she did become out-of-shape over the term of these events. If she did too much, too fast then she will have muscle pains due to retained lactic acids. The diaphragm is skeletal muscle, just like we have in our arms and legs. It will hurt like overworked arm or legs muscles too. Of course all the muscles of the abdomen and the chest wall they will hurt as well if over burdened. That is all part and parcel to the process of muscle conditioning and will go away once the muscles are in better shape (as they were before).

If there is pain directly around the surgery site just monitor it and see if it dissipates. If it gets worse quickly then see a physician. If there is any sudden shortness of breath or change in heart status then an ER run is in order. I don't know what caused the initial pnuemo or what occurred in the course of its treatment. I hope that you have discussed all of this with your doctors and have their permission to return to physical activity at this level. Do the follow up care and visits they have outlined for you.

[omargue]

thank you Davy9, she feels pain in her back when she takes deep breaths. she also has constant pain in her chest cavity underneath her left breast (chest tubes side) and in the center of the 2 where her abdomen starts. In that same area she feels a whole, that her chest is open between her breasts where her abdomen begins. she describes the pain as to where she had her chest tubes internally. more pain where her 2nd tube was because this tube had a suction and was constantly sucking and hurt her. this is where she feels the pain in her lower rib area. Early this morning she felt pain in her back where they did the Pleural Effusion surgery but has now faded away. she says that in the surgery they had to shift her ribs and have been delicate since. She was in top physical condition before the pneumothorax and we dont think it is soreness from the workout because we did not train at any high level at all but this was her first time back at the gym doing physical activity. the pain is focused only on her surgery side.

There was only 1 follow up with her surgean after the surgery. it was 2 weeks after and was to remove the stiches. He said that she will feel pain for 3 months but that everything came out great. Due to coverage with her insurance she was unable to revisit the doctor. now we are living in the US and are without health insurance, hoping that this will just pass and she will be OK.

Just to add, the results of her surgery was an irrupted bleb?, no infections. they reportedly cut 17 x 2.5cm in her Pleural Effusion surgery.

[Davy9]

With what you more clearly describe it would be better to visit a physician and have the situation assessed. This is not something that can be easily evaluated on a site such as this. It will be specific to her case and really does require a professional opinion.