The Story Of My Day May 11
I’m back now, more or less ok. The short story is that I have a partially collapsed lung, aka. a pneumothorax. It should get better on it’s own in a few days (hopefully).
The long story:
On Tuesday night, I got off the exercise bike and felt some back pains. At the time, I thought nothing of it and assumed it was just muscle strain. The problem persisted through the night and into the next day. Basically, it hurt whenever I took a deep breath and whenever I was lying on my back. Enough alarms went off in my head that I went to see my doctor today. She did a normal check-up and took some chest x-rays. Unfortunately, their office equipment wasn’t that great. And so while she saw some abnormalities in the x-ray, she couldn’t tell exactly what it was. Her advice was to go to the ER.
So I came home, grabbed my stuff, wrote that quick update, and went on my way to the hospital. Now mind you, I’ve never been to the emergency room, so I had no idea what the experience is like. It ended up being better than I thought it’d be, though the local hospital was a lot smaller than I expected. The triage nurse checked me up, I filled out some paperwork, and then I waited. About 45 minutes later, they called my name, put me in a small room, and made me change into one of those hospital gowns. Then came an even longer wait. After the initial nurse who took my blood pressure and my temperature, no one showed up for the next 90 minutes. I had brought this week’s issue of Time Magazine (which has a Nintendo Wii preview incidentally) to read and there was also a TV in the room to keep me occupied. The ER doctor finally came and examined me, and then sent me to get more chest x-rays and a blood test done.
Once those tests were done, there was more waiting until the doctor finally came back. His diagnosis was that I have a partially collapsed lung, aka. a pneumothorax. According to him, it wasn’t something specific I had done as much as it was just because I’m tall and thin (or as he referred to it, “genetics”). From the x-ray, he thought that my left lung had a tear of some sort and some air got out. There had also been some internal bleeding. Usually a small pneumothorax heals by itself as the body absorbs the air. But there’s always the chance that the tear gets bigger instead of smaller, in which case they have to stick a tube inside of me and start sucking out the air. He told me to come back tomorrow afternoon for a follow-up x-ray and to go see another specialist next week for a check-up. There really wasn’t any medicine he could prescribe me except for painkillers (which I turned down).
And so I’m still in pain, but it’s comforting to know that it’ll get better (hopefully). A huge Thank You to everyone for their support - it really means a lot to me. 
tj han at 11:37 pm on May 11th, 2006
I’m shocked that even if you had to go to the ER, you wrote that quick update first. Now is that dedication or what?
NissanNut at 11:41 pm on May 11th, 2006
Great news! Yeah, I’ve been to the emergency 3 times and the waits just keep getting longer and longer. When I broke my right arm during football practice, it was a 90 minute before I finally saw the doctor… after nurses checked up on me. It was almost twice the wait for the doctor after I broke my left arm after goofing around while playing basketball. The last visit to the emergency room was a little over 3 1/2 hours wait time for the doctor, but she walked in for about a minute, asked a few questions, and left. I’ll tell you this… nurses are important to a hospitals and make the wait much easier.
mewmeowmew at 11:42 pm on May 11th, 2006
lik tj han said, talk about dedication! >.
Knightmare213 at 11:45 pm on May 11th, 2006
I remember the first time I went to the ER. Of course, it was after a five minute ride in the ambulance with my right leg broken in three places and the foot twisted toward the other. It was a painful experience I suffered for five months. I hope it won’t be painful as mine.
Man, that specialist better give you some good news.
Saga at 11:45 pm on May 11th, 2006
Get better
Karasuhebi at 11:54 pm on May 11th, 2006
Glad to know it was (hopefully) nothing serious, Omni. Hope you get rid of that pain soon! ^_^
-Karasuhebi
kws at 11:54 pm on May 11th, 2006
Good luck!!
someone at 11:58 pm on May 11th, 2006
good luck hope you get better
at least it wasnt like me the first time i went to hospital emergency that i remember (i prob went once cant remember since i was like 4 or 5 or something) was like 2 and 1/2 yrs ago when i found out i had cancer
with 2 yrs of treatment but thats all good now you get used to the wait(like over 2hrs sometimes 6 hrs or more) after you go there few times
ayyo at 12:00 am on May 12th, 2006
Hope you get better too
bravejaf at 12:07 am on May 12th, 2006
Yeah I’ve been to the ER once because it was late night and all the urgent care places were closed. Took them 2 1/2 - 3 hours to put 5 stitches in my finger.
Anyways your injury/condition sounds a little more serious than mine was, but hopefully it will heal up like they said.
Millennia at 12:08 am on May 12th, 2006
Glad to know it was nothing serious
Get well soon!
Ransom at 12:08 am on May 12th, 2006
Well, hope you get better then, and that the matter doesn’t get as complicated as you said it could get :s
Vera at 12:10 am on May 12th, 2006
I make a point in keeping as far away from hospitals… or any kind of doctors for that matter, as possible. Good luck with your lung. I hope it heals and you won’t have to have anything stuck into it -.-
That wait sure was loooooong. Did they build the machines right when they got you?
j00n at 12:11 am on May 12th, 2006
It’s good to hear you’ll be fine. I would’ve taken those painkillers.
Good luck with recovering and take it easy until then.
DAC at 12:16 am on May 12th, 2006
man hope you dont die ^_^ we’d be lost without u XD. hoping u heal well
melange at 12:16 am on May 12th, 2006
As someone who’s been through a lung biopsy and suffered a long while with tubes stuck in his chest let me say one thing: You do not want to have tubes stuck in you! >_
Angel at 12:18 am on May 12th, 2006
Hmm I hope that tear doesn’t get any bigger. I’m glad you want to see the doctor when you did though, lots people tend to ignore such symptoms and just think nothing of it.
ER is nothing like what people think of it sterotypically (i.e. what happens on medical dramas). I work at one so I would know. But yea most small community hospitals tend to be pretty quiet, steady flow of patients at it’s busiest (unless there was a code orange in the area). But 90mins wait (after the inital assessment by the nurse) isn’t so bad. Some of the patients at our hospital some times have to wait up to four hours+ before the doctor even comes to see them. And that’s nice that there’s a tv in the room, really distracts you from the wait time (at least I think it would).
Like I said I hope that tear doesn’t get bigger and that it’ll start to heal itself. You’re a good blogger and it’s great to read your entries but health comes first. Take care.
melange at 12:19 am on May 12th, 2006
Darn it… my post got cut off…
Continuation: Even if it hurts, its good to take some deep breaths now and then. That way the lung can expand more easily to its original capacity.
GhOsTeDgE at 12:23 am on May 12th, 2006
YAY! Glad to hear the good news.
mangaka-chan at 12:26 am on May 12th, 2006
Ouch! A tear in the lungs sounds very painful. It’s good that you had it checked before it became something potentially more serious. Get well soon! ^_^