On November 22, 2014 Dallin was at the gym doing a warm up run on the treadmill. He started to feel some pain in his chest, kind of like a really bad running cramp. He decided to push through it and hope that it goes away....well, it didn't go away. It got so painful for Dallin and he was struggling to breath. He got off the treadmill and slowly walked around the gym, hoping to catch his breath. His breathing became more labored and the pain just wouldn't stop. He laid down on a mat and call me (his Mom). He said something was wrong and he needed me to come get him. When I asked what was wrong he told me that he was having trouble breathing. Stephen jumped in his car to head to the gym and I told Dallin to get some help at the gym. He eventually caught the attention of his friend, John and was able to get help. They called the paramedics and they arrived shortly after Stephen got there. They assessed him: his oxygen levels were good and his heart was good. They said to go to the ER. Stephen rushed to the ER as Dallin painfully struggled to breath. When they arrived at Gwinnett medical a chest Xray showed that his left lung had collapsed, causing extreme pain and difficulty breathing.
The doctor did a quick surgical procedure and inserted a chest tube into Dallin's chest cavity to help the lung expand and to help Dallin breath better. After the procedure was completed Dallin was checked into a room to be monitored. The hope was that the leak in his lung would heal and close up on it's own. He stayed in the hospital from Saturday to Wednesday.
The doctor released him to go home for Thanksgiving with the chest tube still intact. We returned to the doctor the following week for another chest X ray to see if the lung was healing itself. The X ray showed that the leak (or bleb) had not closed up and that Dallin would need surgery to repair the lung. The doctor would have to make two incisions through his ribs, insert a drainage tube into his chest cavity and then staple of the section of his lung that contained the leak. The doctor would also be scraping the inside of his lung (like using sandpaper to rough it up) so that scar tissue would develop and help close off the leak.
Dallin went in for surgery on Friday, December 5. The procedure took a couple of hours and then the recovery/healing process began.
Dallin was in a ton of pain and was having a hard time getting comfortable. As he was coming out of surgery he spoke a lot of Portuguese to the nurses and me. And I mean a lot. I kept telling him that he needed to speak to me in English is he needed to tell me anything. He kept saying, "Sorry Mom." Once when I asked him to speak English he said, "But Portuguese is cool!" When I told him that he kept speaking to the nurses in Portuguese he asked, "Did they like it? It's cool!" He would answer the nurses questions in Portuguese and they would kind of just give me a weird look. He had a rough night trying to manage his pain and it was obvious that he was very uncomfortable and a little bit cranky.
This is a picture of the "bleb", the little blister that was inside Dallin's lung that burst. The doctor filled his lung with saline and when he pushed down with his tool you could see the little leak. This is where the oxygen leaked out and caused the lung collapse.
Stephen stayed the first night with him at the hospital and I returned around lunchtime the next day. When I arrived he had made a lot of improvement and his pain was under control. Now we just had to wait and let the surgery do its thing and wait for the healing to happen. After a couple of rough days and another X ray Dallin was cleared to go home on Monday!!!! The chest tube was pulled out and a big old band aid placed on the wound on his chest...the chest tube that was pulled out was the size of a garden hose. Ugh! Everyday Dallin would improve and his strength began to come back...
Today is December 22 and Dallin goes in tomorrow for a final checkup with his lung doctor. He will get a chest X ray today and hopefully we can put this ordeal behind us and never look back! I'm grateful for the doctors and nurses who helped him get better but I'm most grateful that Dallin's lung didn't collapse while he was on his mission in Brazil!
