My name is Crystal. I live in Ohio and I am 34 years old. I have 3 daughters, a puppy, a
hamster, a bird and 2 gold fish. I quit smoking last Tuesday. Last Tuesday I went to the ER after putting off going to the doctor for about 2 months with a
case of Bronchitis(yes, yet another case of that). I dont have insurance right now, as i am unemployed as of January, and i didnt want to have to pay the
bill. My boyfriend had been telling me to go for 2 months and i am pretty stubborn sometimes, well, most of the times. I usually am very good about going to
the doctor when i get sick because i have been very unfortunate in having my lung collapse spontaneously 3 times in the past 9 years. 1 on the left lung and
2 on the right. Usually i can tell when it collapses because the pain is absolutely unbearable. I had a feeling when i went to the er last tuesday that it
was collapsed but i still really didnt want to go. I always feel so stupid when i go to the doctor and the lung is collapsed and they ask if i smoke and i
say, "yeah." After 3 times you think i would quit. Well, after sooooo much coughing and pain I made a decision on that Tuesday that when i walked
in the Er that would be my last smoke. And I savored that last smoke and i tried to change my mind in the days following. But when i got in to the er and
found out that my lung was about 30%collapsed I really decided that it had to stop. They admitted me that night and i knew that i would have to see the
doctor who has told me 2 times that i need to quit smoking. He also says that i develop spontaneous pneumothoraxes because i am tall and thin and i guess
that I develop blebs on my lungs which bust and they develop into a pneumothorax. I also am a nurse , and the doctors always give me a hard time because they
tell me that I "KNOW" what happens. Anyways, the next morning he comes in and he tells me that it is the right lung again. He also tells me that
he thinks that I should have this surgery that may decrease my chances of the right lung collapsing again. When the other surgeon comes into explain the
surgery to me i am just a bit scared. Of my 3 lung collapses, i only had a chest tube with the first, the other two i just stayed on 100% oxygen by a mask
for a day and that helped. But they werent as bad as 30%. In this surgery they were going to do which is called TAPS with pleurodesis and stapling, they cut
three incisions in your chest wall, in one they put a camera, which they use to do the surgery. The other two they use to go in and find any blebs that have
developed and get rid of them. They found 2 blebs in my surgery . They also staple down the apex of the lung somehow, but i am not sure how they do that.
They also put some kind of talc in the space in there and rough it up . Then they put 2 chest tubes in. When I woke up I was in the most pain that I think I
ever have been in. To move was like their was something jammed in my side. I have had surgery before 2 c-sections, a hysterectomy, and a tonsillectomey, and
a chest tube insertion, but this was beyond any pain i have ever had. I saw my mom , my 2 friends in the hallway when we came to the floor i was on. and i
wouldnt let them come back for a while just because i was in soooo much pain. I was on a morphine pump, and that didnt help whatsoever. But then again, i can
only imagine how much pain it would be without that. So, after they came back my mom called nearly everyone i knew and told them not to come that night
cause i was hurting so much. And mom didnt come back to the hosp. until i was discharged, she couldnt cope with seeing me in such pain. The doctor did tell
me that their was no sign of empysema, which i was very happy about, especially after smoking for 14 years. The next day they took one tube out. Only for my
lung to collapse again. Also, another interesting thing about this surgery is that they totally collapse the lung they are working on during surgery. It
didnt collapse too bad though . But they couldnt take the other tube out until it was better. So Sunday they took the other tube out. I was discharged that
day at 2 pm. but i went back to the hospital that night because their was air coming out of one of my chest tube holes, when i would breath. The doctors kept
me that night(said that my lung was collapsed 5%) but in the morning my surgeons said that it was fine and i could go home. Its Tuesday now, and I feel 95%
better. My cravings for cigarettes are every once in a while. And usually its something as simple as i am getting ready to get on the computer in the morning
and i am carrying my coffee and i thought to myself, shouldnt i be carrying something else. Then realize that i am thinking ashtry and cigs/lighter. I have
tried to just really think to myself "this is just a thought" when i want a cigarette and the crave goes away. My hardest time so far has been wehn
i was talking to my ex husband on the phone earlier, and i just tried to keep my hands busy. I think it was good to get the first of my withdrawl over in
the hospital, where i knew that i could not have a cigarette. Now i just have to keep it up. I just keep telling myself i am a nonsmoker now. Crystal

