Well... I survived!

This is good news.

For those of you that don't know, I had my second VATS / pleurodesis surgery last Tuesday at the UCLA Medical Center. 

Let's just say - recovery is coming along... but much too slowly for my liking. 

Without getting too gruesome with the details...

This surgery left me with two incision sites and a chest tube for a 3 day stint at the hospital. This time I was smart and got an epidural.. so the pain wasn't bad with the chest tube at all.. this time.

  (I learned my lesson the hard way)

Let's just say, epidurals are AWESOME! 

Honestly, the worst part about chest tubes is getting them taken out. You are fully awake and they pretty much just count to three and yank. It's HORRENDOUS. But this time was my best experience (out of 4 experiences with chest tubes) mainly because it was the first time I had a hand to hold while it happened. 

My husband has been nothing short of SAINTLY through this whole process. I probably would have lost my ish if he wasn't there. 

To be honest, since I've gotten home from the hospital, it hasn't been easy, but I wasn't expecting it to be. However, after 9 days of constant pain and not being able to breathe comfortably, or laugh at anything... it starts to get to you. 

The not being able to laugh thing has been pure torture! (I'm a laugher.) 

So, now that I've reached the point where I'm not totally loaded up on meds that cause me to fall asleep every 10 minutes (It's taken me 3 days to write this post) I'll be a much more active blogger. Especially since I'll still be keeping things very low key for quite a while. 

(I'm about as swift as a snail right now)

So hopefully my recovering ramblings aren't too all over the place! 

Thank you so much to everyone for all the positive thoughts and prayers! 

Blogging... A possible cure for fast-approaching insanity.

Seriously? Just call me 'The Wonder Lung'... you wouldn't be the first.

(But that's really not a very catchy superhero name is it...)

Since I was 18 I've struggled with a reoccurring issue called a 'spontaneous pnuemothorax' (a.k.a. collapsed lung). It happened twice with my right lung which caused me to have major thoracic surgery to prevent it from happening over and over and over..... you get the idea. 

But considering it involved stapling a bit of my lung off (ew), and what surgeons like to call 'pleurodesis' (I call it 'the thing that's caused Lindsey the most pain in her life') - it really put me out of commission for a while & I honestly nearly went crazy from boredom & lack of mobility. 

(There is only so much Sex & the City you can watch...)

So I had conquered that tough phase of my young adult life, and learned a lot about how fragile we are as human beings, and how much we really do take for granted. Everything, including the simple air in our lungs.

(You never know how precious simply breathing is until its agonizing to do just that..)

The problem was fixed though, and I would never have to go through that again. Or so I thought..

I guess after 3 years my left lung felt left out and has collapsed twice since 2010 - most recently last month, while on vacation in Texas, visiting my wonderful in-laws. 

Therefore, I have opted to have the surgery again. 

Part of me feels totally crazy for volunteering to undergo the most painful experience of my life, but at the same time I'm excited to be free of the anxiety this problem causes me every day. 

This is where you come in... 

(yay!)

Considering I will soon be very stationary (and not liking it) for quite a while, I figured starting a blog would give me an outlet and something to occupy my time... and also provide you with some highly medicated ramblings... 

(I may have to recruit my husband to censor me so I don't embarrass myself too badly.)

So if you decide to follow along, thank you for the support and enjoy the show! ;)

(Awesome x-ray. See all that dark area... yeah, not supposed to be like that.. Stupid wonder lungs!)