First of all i must thank the people on here who gave me hope about the oeration ,but thought that maybe telling people about my own operation would make it less scary for those that are about to have the same operation .So on the 22nd July i was first down for surgery at the Northern General in Sheffield where i had the middle lobe of my lung removed,and i must admit i knew nothing till the next day ,nothing that i remember anyway ,when i was more alert i realised that i was attached to a chest drain which i expected ,they gave me pain killers and got me sat up outside the bed ,i ate very little .that saturday evening they moved me from the Lung Care Unit ,onto a ward with 3 other people ,which helped to have other people to talk to ,most of the rest of saturday i slept ,sunday i could feel an improvement but everything tasted weird so i hardly ate anything though i tried ,monday i was getting up and walking about carrying the chest drain which did not seem to want to clear ,I was told the reading had to go to zero before they would take it off ,so as i was told that walking would help i was walking up and down the ward as often as i felt i could ,with a lot of encouragement from the staff ,I did not feel breathless or in much pain,and i was surprised to feel so well ,the only pain i had was the actual site where the incision was made and where the tube from my chest to the chest drain was ,which is in a rather uncomfortable place ,under the right arm and in line with the crease of my breast .To be honest by now i was ready for home .but the chest drain did not want to play nice and i was getting despondant by Tuesday.Tuesday evening my surgeon came to see me ,she said they would set me up with a portable chest drain so i could go home on wednesday ,which made me smile .But wednesday was a day full of tests and x.rays to make sure everything was ok .By the time i did get home it was 8 p.m.The next few days were spent doing very little because no district nurse had been out and the chest drain was filling up and i was in agony with the weight ,I ended up phoning the district nurses myself and begging them to come and empty the chest drain ,which they did eventually at 7p.m on saturday night ,there had been a mix up and were not told i was home till saturday morning ,that night was the best nights sleep i had .Sunday i started to feel quesy and really could not eat much ,i felt doped up and i said to my husband that i did not see any reason to take painkillers as i was no longer in pain ,by this time i had lost my appetite and felt no better on Monday morning ,where i eventually was very sick ,into my morning cereal (sorry) I phoned the hospital and they told me to do what i had already done and stop taking the pain killers ,by wednesday things were improving along with my appetite .Thursday i had to go back to the hospital for the drain removed ,as i had no drainage since it had been removed on the saturday i was hoping it would be ,after more tests ,more x.rays it was removed with instruction from a staff nurse it made the removal painless ,problem is i had to have one stitch put in without any pain relief and though very painful at least it was quick .It is now tight ,and healing and hopefully when the stitch comes out next week it will feel more like normal.I have a CT scan lined up in about 3 weeks time ,hopefully all the horrid nodules will of gone ,and i will be on the full road to recovery
