Hello! Had my surgery just under a month ago. After the initial drainage tubes were pulled I had to have additional tubes re-inserted twice to treat a recurring pneumothorax. Hellish. Now, after having been recovering at home for a few weeks & feeling more like my pre-op self every day, I apparently have a pleural effusion in the same lung that had the pneumothorax. It's "mild-to-moderate" and I'm on Lasix to treat it, but if it doesn't start getting smaller by next week I might have to be re-admitted to have yet another drainage tube put in. I am feeling quite frustrated, especially as I feel almost totally fine other than an occasional fever & night sweats which are apparently caused by the same inflammation as the pleural effusion. No shortness of breath, I've been taking walks and doing my spirometer (and the amount I can breathe in is steady, even increasing). I very much don't want to have to be re-admitted, and I'm even more worried about the effusion coming back after it's drained. Is there anything else I can do to prevent this and/or help the effusion go away or do I just have to wait and see?
Pleural effusion & recurring lung complications
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Superman
Well-known member
I hope things resolve for you soon. I swear they way overdue the IV fluids during surgeries these days. Seems a more and more frequent complication. I don’t recall being all ballooned up after my first surgery in 1990. They pumped in close to 20 lbs of fluids during my second.
ejc61
Well-known member
I had a bout of pleural effusion starting around the 8 week mark post surgery. I think the fluid was around 200ml and I was given a steroid pack and maybe another med. It did ultimately go away within a few weeka, but the on again off again moving pain was not cool.
After my surgery, I had the liquid around my lungs in the hospital, they also left the tubes in a few days extra (if I remember correctly). Once home, I had x-ray's a couple times during the next 6 weeks, the liquid was increasing. They finally had me have the procedure, Thoracentesis. Instantly I felt better! Reading about the procedure was a little unnerving but it wasn't bad at all! Good luck!
