My lung partially collapsed, will it ever be safe to smoke weed again?
While sitting on my PC the right side of my chest started to hurt spontaneously. It was a sharp pain that lessened over the next few hours. I thought nothing of it even though I could only take shallow breaths and it hurt to lay on my right side. It felt like something was stuck in my lung and also hurt alot to cough. Three days later I took a flight back home for my brothers birthday, and upon landing it started to hurt significantly more.
I decided to not tough it out anymore as my dad told me that if it was something like bronchitis/pneumonia (which I've had both in the past year) both my lungs would hurt, and it wouldnt have started as such a sharp pain out of nowhere.
Anyway went to a doctor and he was right - my right lung had collapsed 15%, and I was diagnosed with spontaneous lung collapse. The way he explained it wasn't how I thought a lung would "collapse" but I had a wrong understanding of the lungs in general. He said that the cause for this condition was unknown, but consisted of a pocket of air trapped outside my lung but still deep in my chest so it had nowhere to go. As I breathed in, the trapped air would push on my lungs as they tried to expand and it would hurt.
As a 160lb , 6'2 , 18 year male smoker (smoking weed out of pipes/bongs and unfiltered american spirits daily) I fit every risk factor possible to get this condition.
He said they'd have to insert a tube through the side of my ribcage that would let the air out. They shoved a long hollow tube with maybe a diameter 3-4x that of a pen cartridge after numbing my skin with lidocaine. This is the worst pain I had ever felt in my life, the surgeon said that most people generally did not experience this much pain. My heartrate went from 50 to 150 in a second and kept jumping as he couldn't get the tube inside. He went to get a scalpel and made an incision on the rib lining so he could push it in. When it was in all the way it was still the most uncomfortable thing I'd felt to date. Just it moving around hitting my tissues would send me into excrutiating pain. I couldn't literally lift a finger, any tug on a muscle in the torso would send me into horrible pain let alone staying completely still, I involuntarily would start tearing up.
I was left there for around 30 minutes as the ER nurse got the proper authorization to give me pain meds. Finally I was given 2 milligrams of morphine and a 5mg vicodin, which did nothing for my pain. I was carted to the room I was gonna be staying in for the next few days but the pain was still excrutiating - the attending nurse noticed this as she saw I was unable to move myself off the gurney onto the bed even. She told me she'd go talk to the doctor really fast to authorize something for my pain. Two minutes later she told me he had authorized 4mg hydromorphone IV and then 2mg every 2 hours until the pain had subsided somewhat.
My eyes kinda lit up at this even in my traumatic state as I was somewhat of an opiate virgin, and had read hydromorphone is one of the most euphoric opiates to take IV. The nurse administered it and I floated to planet mu almost immediately, within 2 minutes the pain was still there but it no longer came in waves of sharpness and I found it much easier to ignore it simply by focusing on another thought. The nurse administered 2mg more as I said it was still very uncomfortable. I guess the vic from before kicked in as well as all pain had subsided at this point (I still didn't try to move though as that was very uncomfortable), and I started to nod hard.
I didn't really sleep that night, I nodded off for like 30-45 minutes a few times but I was having too much fun watching TV and talking to my Mom who had decided to spend the night at the hospital. The nurse would periodically come in, ask how my pain level was and administer more medication. They also started giving me Toradol (an NSAID) which to me appeared to potentiate the pain-killing and sedating effects of the hydro.
This lasted for about 36 hours. They stopped giving me the hydromorphone as frequently but it was all good because it didnt feel like someone was fucking around with my insides with a steel rod anymore whenever I moved. They x-rayed me again and said that my lung had reflated to its former size and the air had rushed out, to be careful the following weeks and that there was around a 20% chance of this happening again since it was a spontaneous case. Yanked the 6-7" tube out and told me to take tylenol/ibuprofen for pain, and to come back in a few weeks for another x-ray even if it didn't hurt.
Anyway now since this has happened, I haven't smoked any weed or cigarettes. It was hard at first but I've gotten used to it and changed my habits alot. I'm dying to smoke weed though, but I can't get past the fact that smoking anything may be a risk factor - before my lung collapsing I was pretty much training to be an olympic bong ripping champion. Everyday I'd take gigantic snaps taht would fill my lungs from all the way empty to all the way full with smoke (I'd exhale all the air when the smoke reached the top of the bong), and each time try to inhale more. I'd milk the bong so slow, sometimes taking 30+ sec for a rip to make sure I didn't destroy any THC by overtorching / snap any unspent weed. Then I'd hold it in for at least 20 seconds. After that point i loved blowing all the air out of my lungs REALLY fast. I can't help but think this weakened my lungs somehow so now I'm afraid to smoke, even to hit a pipe. Under no circumstance do I want my lung to collapse again.
I've given up cigarettes for good (I realized how shitty cigs were a long time ago I was just heavily addicted ot them for the past 2 years and couldn't quit until I was forced to), but I want to start smoking weed again as its one of my favorite pastimes.
So my question is to anyone who has had this condition and smoked, if theres anyone out there, should I risk it? I never even asked the docs about how much smoking weed (say a bong toke every few nights) would affect it as i was afraid in the future it would affect how they prescribed me powerful/euphoric drugs i may or may not need. This was honestly the most traumatic experience of my life, if the risk of it happening is increased by even 5% by smoking weed I'm ready to quit for life. It just hasnt been made clear to me if whether the increased risk from smoking is from the additional cheimcals added to cigarettes, nicotines constricting effect on the lungs (as opposed to THC's dialating effect) or if this risk is increased in putting pressure on the lungs in general through inhaling anything that requires some suction.
