u/lcfcdylan

Hi so I had a recurrence of a primary spontaneous pneumothorax earlier this week, 5 months after my first one, which was treated with VATS bullectomy and Mechanical Pleurodesis.
My lung had re collapsed to around the same size as the first time, so I had a chest drain inserted. Due to strict time constraints regarding crucially important exams that I have missed because of this, hence meaning I have to sit deferred exams later this month, I want to get the surgery done asap. I was told it’d likely be VATS but with chemical Pleurodesis instead of mechanical.
My lung has managed to re inflate with just the chest drain, not fully reexpanded but nearly. However, I know that it could, and probably will collapse again at some stage. I do not want this to happen again, and the thought of living with constant paranoia of it happening is not what i would want. One of the consultants has said that they may not do any procedure if it is fully re inflated again, but I still want it done because if I miss any more time then I miss my exams and there’s no contingency plan if I miss the deferred papers.

Has anybody here ever had the VATS and Pleurodesis done do a lung that is re inflated or nearly re inflated? Or are they able to do a controlled deflation in surgery to do this? Any help would be much appreciated as I do not want to leave here without the surgery done.

I posted on here the other day about my story and recovery, and just my luck, I was sitting watching TV that evening, at the back end of a head cold that was accompanied with a bit of a cough when I got a sharp pain in between my shoulder blades. It subsided after a few minutes and that was that. I went to bed fine. The following morning I woke up laying on my left side, the same side I had VATS done to a small bit of the dreaded clicking. I got up, I wasn’t short of breath or anything and the clicking was only when I lay there on that side and nowhere else. Later on that morning I was walking to school and got that familiar dull pain in my shoulder area/collarbone, that subsided too. Again, no shortness of breath or additional chest bubbling, but I had VATS and mechanical pleurodesis in late December 2025, and I had to cancel commitments because of this and rescheduled them to now, and I do not want to have to cancel them again. Has anybody ever experienced similar 4 months after VATS. Could it possibly be a small air leak that could re absorb by itself as a triggered result of my persistent coughing?

I have important exams coming and cannot afford to miss any more time off school because of this than I already have.