Me Not Healthy: The Lung Cysts (Part 1)

As some of you are aware I'm not exactly the pinnacle of good health. Some of it is my fault, I could sleep more, eat healthier and exercise more frequently so I wouldn't be such a skinny nerdy Asian. But there are some things I have no control over.

I was a happy and active child but a problem began to appear as I grew older. Occasionally I would be short of breath without pain. It didn't make much sense but I ignored it until one day it happened along with tons of pain and breathlessness.

I thought I was having a heart attack.

No one knew what was going on during these bouts. X-rays revealed pockets of air spontaneously popping up in my lungs so they shoved a tube inside me to suck it out the air and left it at that. I don't know how many of you out there have ever had a foreign object half dangling inside and out of your body but I can confirm that it's not fun or painless. After this little episode I was informed should another bubble appear I would need surgery.

For the next year or so the frequency of breathlessness increased. There were times where I'd feel anxious, suddenly fatigued or "uncomfortable". Occasionally there would be pain. Each episode was different, it can feel like heart burn, muscle fatigue/soreness, a cramp or combination of the above and many more.

Finally after enough pressure from family I went and got additional x-rays which showed nothing. So I went and got a cat scan done on the left side of my body which most of the discomfort was coming from. Turns out, I had cysts in my lungs.

And the cysts just lined the top.

See, the thing about the lung cysts was that I was probably born with them. And everytime one of them burst, the air, blood, pus, etc. would come out, press down on my lung and BAM, breathlessness. They think that a drop in barometric pressure increases the likelihood of them bursting because whenever there is a drop, there's an increase in these kinds of incidents.

The doctors gave me a choice, get surgery now and (hopefully) get rid of the problem OR leave it alone and risk having more "Oh god is it a cyst bursting or am I having a heart attack" moments.

I opted for the surgery.

Which I will share with you in my next post.

I did not look forward to it.