Hi Eric, Katie, Judy, Judy and Mike....thank you all for posting on here and helping me in the lead up to my operation. Just wanted to come on here and tell you all that I had it done (full Left Pneumonectomy) On the 11th of Feb 2011 following a critical lung infection at the end Of january - surgeon decided there was no time to waste and it had to go or it was going to kill me.
So today i am 6 weeks post op and absolutely 100% back to doing what I was before the op. I even took the kids last weekend for a bike ride to the park and back, not far, maybe a kilometre or 2 but I certainly couldn't have done it with 2 lungs as the left was soooo badly damaged from cancer.
It was so bad that they actually found 11 tumors not 2....OMG that came as a shock to everyone. What also came as a shock was that during the operation I did not falter at all. My O2 sats sat on 96% and when they deflated the left lung they went UP to 97% and my heart rate dropped from 105bpm to 89 and has since dropped again at rest to 75bpm and often during my hospital stay my O2 sats were 99-100%...how crazy is that. I feel great and apart from some medialstinal shift immediately post op...that was corrected (sooo painful!), I had a trouble free recovery.
I go for my 6 week check next Tues and am expecting to see some organ shift on x-ray as I have a very irritating grind against my rib cage and loads of gas after eating, and the feeling of being full all the time. I have read this can be due to stomach and intestine shift into the cavity.....will wait and see but to me it makes total sense.
Well, thank you lovely people, you quashed some of my fears,and answered silly questions and gave me more confidence to do this, and now I am so so pleased I did.
warmest wishes and loads of love and luck.....chat soon
Michele (Mihalo) from Oz xxoo