My Story

My bro’s condition did not improve after chest tube..

Dr Raja Amin, cardiothoracic surgeon from KL is going to do VATS for him..

Hopefully everything will be alright then.. Take care..

Oh ya, there was another 30 years old man who got pneumothorax as well and underwent open surgery..

Guess how much when he was discharged after 5 days in hospital?

RM19,000!!!

What is VATS?

Video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery is a minimally invasive surgical technique used to diagnose and treat problems in the chest.

During this surgery, one or more small incisions are made in the chest. A tiny fiber-optic camera (called a thorascope) is inserted through one incision, and surgical instruments are inserted through this or other small incisions. The thorascope transmits images of the inside of the chest on a video monitor, guiding the surgeon in maneuvering the instruments to complete the procedure.

VATS can replace a traditional thoracotomy, which uses one larger incision to gain access to the chest. The minimally invasive procedure typically results in less pain and faster recovery time for the patient, among other advantages for patients.

Who said pneumothorax no family history? hehe

After 1 year of attack-free previous pneumothorax, my bro got his 1st attack yesterday..

His symptoms are exactly same as mine..

Deep breathing will feel pain & cough..

mild SOB..

felt something inside when jump..

He’s going to do Chest tube tonight at Johor Specialist..

40% of the lung has collapsed..

Hope he can get well soon and NO relapse!!

Oh ya, he’s the typical TALL & THIN..

so next time make sure u’re FAT! (the only reason to be fat :D)

After having McD this afternoon, i started to have pleuritic chest pain..

OMG, another attack of Pneumothorax?

Hope NOT!!

Check out my previous stories about Pneumothorax..

Oh ya, McD is having promotion right now.. everyday 12 noon to 3pm, selected sets will be RM6..

So get urself a treat at McD now!

lol

In this previous post, i mentioned i have to meet Dr Joshi, cardio thoracic surgeon of SGH..

so, i went this morning..

“Mr Prashant Joshi, MBBS, MS (Gen Surgery),DNB, M.Ch. (Cardiothoracic Surgery)” From SGH Homepage

Blue arrow is Dr Joshi lo.. RED arrow.. my Dean.. haha.. Looks like la.. not sure..

Ok, finish introducing the head of department, then the story goes..

went there at 9.30am.. went around the hospital 2 rounds!! Ke Kiang, assuming i know d place.. then walk walk.. ask ask… then 2 rounds..

reached there den straight go counter.. privilege ma.. with the medical student name tag.. lol.. abusing power..

Ok, told the nurse.. she said he’s not in.. WTH?

so wait lo.. he’s rounding the ward.. no choice..

10am, finally saw him.. warm welcome by him, straight shake hands with me.. saying ” I’ll meet u in 10 min”.

Wow, another 10 min.. ok.. so many patients ma..

actually i do not have refer letter.. just that Dr Htaik made appointment for me with him..

so met him up finally..

He said:

1. Your Penumothorax is ok now..
2. You’re normal
3. You can do anything as usual
4. You can exercise
5. You can lead a normal life

AND.. finally..

IF you have another pneumothorax, you come back and find me, i do VATS for you..

WTH? everything normal then lastly said if recur again then VATS.. must be not normal la? straight surgery wo..

VATS= Video Assisted Thoracoscopy surgery

Surgery, minor one.. half an hour he said..

OK, pray not to recur Again!

although had recur 5 times..

Spontaneous Pneumothorax

Dr Thung Htaik just sms me telling me that my appointment with Dr Joshi will be on Wednesday’s morning.. Hope everything will be fine.

Just in case u do not know what the heck pneumothorax is, click below to find out more..

1. What is that?
2. The Treatment
3. Recurrence
4. HRCT (CT Scan)

I was referred by Dr. Htaik to Dr. Joshi, Head of Department of Cardio Thoracic Surgery Department, SGH.. i was like being referred 4-5 times..

As long as i can get this SP done, i dont care being referred even up to 100 times.. lol

i have to wait another few more days to be able to meet this super busy Dr.

The HRCT report was out and i manage to take a shot at it.. not very clear but still can see the important things la.. big images to be loaded.. Continue reading »

After taking HRCT Scan, Dr Santhosh showed me my result straight away on the computer screen and  u know what? no abnormalities can be found but the pneumothorax has always been there and never really 100% resovlved..

What the hell? so he said he cant find any abnormalities such as cyst.. so i will collect my result tomorrow and show to Dr Thaik tomorrow or some other day..

one thing.. when i was inside, the conversation was in BM.. then for expiration phase, the man cont in BM as usual.. suddenly a chinese girl came in and explain to me in Mandarin.. lol.. then my GF said everyone laughed after that.. zzzzz… nice joke huh? hehe..

ok, back to RL.

anyway, just updated my DNS lol..
went to SGH ( sarawak General Hospital) to meet up Dr. Santhosh, radiologist in SGH after being referred by Dr. Thung, Cardiothoracic surgeon.. so i will be doing a HRCT ( High Resonance Computed Tomography) Scan on 3.2.2009..

He said we cannot do VATS without finding the culprit.. VATS is higher risk so they cannot simply do.. as he said.. so we’ll see after my CNY break.. lol

he said we cannot do VATS because of pneumothorax as to put in talc or watever.. we have to do VATS because XXX in ur lung is causing pneumothorax and we do VATS to remove or watever XXX.. most probably is a bulla
Happy CNY anyway..

And.. SP has no medicine.. either u suffer the pain doing nothing or u go for surgery.. even u take pain killer, it does not kill the underlying causes as well..

so.. beware for those thin, tall young adults..

when u feel pain on both sides, front n back,when u feel something  is moving inside ur chest, ah ha, go for X-ray…

X-ray’s radiation is way way lower than CT scan.. so don worry for getting a chest cancer  :D

http://www.blebdisease.com/forum/

everything about SP.. Spontaneous Pneumothorax.. heck, gotta take some time to read other patients’ experiences!