Hunter was at school Monday as he got into the van, he told Wendy that his chest hurt when he took deep breaths. He went home and laid down and when he laid on his left side he said it hurt even more, to which I said, "Don't do that!" Later he went down and worked out (typical teen athlete), so we thought nothing more about it.
Then on Tuesday he got home and told Wendy his chest still hurt, he also had a weird click in his chest that we could hear from outside of his chest! So we took him to the pediatrician around 7:00pm. Upon hearing this “click” she immediately sent us to downtown to the children's ER.
After tests and waiting 4 hours in the ER he was diagnosed with spontaneous pneumothorax (an abnormal accumulation of air in the space between the lungs and the chest cavity). They put him on 100% oxygen to see if this would clear up and after an X-ray yesterday, at noon, found that the air between the lung and chest cavity and had gotten worse. So... Off to surgery, we went and they placed a small catheter (chest tube, about 1/8 in diameter) into his chest, below his armpit, to relieve the pressure.
He had a pretty good night, although his heart alarm went off at 4:00 am and they rushed in to find his heartbeat! SHEESH! The best part was he was still alive, I kid, the machine just malfunctioned!
Early this morning he had another x-ray and it showed that the space had actually gotten worse. So they hooked up his tube to this, for lack of better words, water bubbling thing-a-majigger. It's actually a wet suction water seal drain and it helps draw any air out of his chest cavity.
UPDATE: (9/11/14 3:41)
The nurse just came in and said that the x-ray that they took at 2:30 showed that his lung is fully inflated... THANK YOU GOD! Now we wait until tomorrow morning and if it's still inflated then they will unhook the machine and he can walk around with it, it keep the chest cavity sealed. Not sure what steps are after that, but I'll give you an update tomorrow morning.
So glad to hear he's improving. Praying for you and Wendy and Hunter!
ReplyDeletePrayers continue for his healing!!
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