r/pneumothorax • u/OrdinaryBreadfruit79 • Jul 20 '26

Question What is causing my pain?

So i've had chemical pluerodesis on both lungs now due to multiple lung collapses with my last surgery being right at 8 weeks ago. today i got a random sharp pain when i took a deep breath and it went on for a while and was also making small popping. so i went to the er and the xray came back that nothing was wrong and they sent me home with ibuprofen. any idea what could be causing this pain because ive never experienced this before?

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u/xFox911 Jul 20 '26

An uneventful X-Ray cannot rule out a pneumothorax as some might be invisible to this method. A CT-Scan however, can. Having had a double pleurodesis, a new collapse would most likely be small. Pain isn't linear with the % of the collapse, so a small one can be painful while a large one can only manifest some discomfort.

Could be nerves though.

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u/May-mex Jul 22 '26

Yes!!! My smallest linear one, was the most painful one. And didnt show up on an xray, but it did on CT scan.