I fit the 5'9", young, male, otherwise healthy group described here.
I just stretch, breath deep despite the pain and sleep it off. It... usually goes away within a day or two. The reason why I've always taken this approach is because it was always just growing pains or my ribs pinching me somehow. (Apparently that's a thing.)
That all said and done, the last time it happened I was genuinely curious and concerned, cause the last time before that I had it happen was years and years ago. And I'm not exactly growing anymore, etc. Not precisely.
But yeah. 5'6, still young-ish, and otherwise healthy I think.
Even a spontaneous primary pneumothrax must be handled seriously. It can become life threatening.
Was a little unsettling.
I'm very glad they did a pleurectomy both times instead of pleurodesis; I've heard people describe pleurodesis and it's pretty terrifying, both the recovery and the permanent after-effects. Noticeably reduced breathing capacity isn't uncommon.
People think it's related to body type, but the surgeon said the more modern understanding is that it's due to "blebs" (actual medical term) on your lung that burst - which the pleurectomy removes. Pleurodesis is usually unnecessary in young people. I was more prone to blebs due to a genetic syndrome.
I've had a pleurodesis on my left side. I never noticed any reduced breathing capacity. The procedure left a few stab-like incisions scars but I actually like them. I'd feel safer if the same was did on the right side too; I like the idea that it will never happen again on the left side but hate the feeling that it can happen again at any time on the right side.
I don't know if the procedure I was submitted is the most common. The surgeon described that they burned (cauterized, I think) the pleuras with an electric scalpel. As it healed, the pleuras stuck on one another. It was painful for just a few days but analgesics were enough to make it bearable.
There was one strange effect: it numbed the tactile feeling of parts of my breast, chest and arm. Immediately after the surgery the numbing effect was so intense that I could pierce the skin with my nails until it bled and felt not pain. I actually did it to demonstrate how numb it was. The medic said it would improve over time. It took years to get the feeling back. It's been twenty years and the feeling still is a bit numb.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precordial_catch_syndrome
Very similar symptoms, totally harmless, to the point where the recommended treatment is "reassurance". As long as the pain lasts for less than 3ish minutes, you have no reason to panic.
(I used to get very anxious every time I had these symptoms, after a friend of mine in high school described the same experience as the others in this thread, trying to sleep off the pain and ending up hospitalized for a collapsed lung. Learning about PCS really put my mind at ease)
First of all, it is usually brought on by sitting hunched over and breathing shallowly for a while (like, an hour). And the pain isn't exactly stabbing, unless you're counting being poked hard with a Popsicle stick.
It releases if I breath deeply enough, with an odd crunching sensation, sort of like popping really small bubble wrap, or cracking knuckles on a tiny hand.
They did the first round of X-rays and were about to let me go since there's not much they do with ribs and collar bones these days. The last minute the Doc came back in and told me that breaking my first rib is pretty difficult and they wanted a few more X-rays which is when they found my pneumothorax and shit hit the fan. I was suddenly in a neck brace and had a Doctor shoving a tube into my chest and had to spend three days in a trauma ward to make sure everything was okay.
All this being said, I knew I had a broken Collarbone right after the fall, but outside of that I literally rode my bike three miles off the hill and drove home for an hour and walked into the ER, and was about to leave feeling fine. It's somewhat "common" for these to be missed after traumatic accidents - though most ER's know to look for them.
It's been a long time since I did the course as I went a few years without having to travel to the kinds of places where it's likely I'd need to apply it, but I do remember a plastic bag and vasseline was recommended if you didn't have a magic sucking chest wound plastic cover thing with a valve on (our med kits contain things like that and tourniquets as well as the usual stuff - including packs of sterile needles etc).
“It’s my right, your left” (not common but has occurred multiple times).
The more frequent one is where someone is trying to say “medial side of left leg” and say “it’s the right side of of my left leg”.
It seems dumb but if it saves me from having someone dissect my right knee when I wanted someone to bolt a new AC ligament into my left one, I'm all for it.
Anyway, I want to discuss two specific things.
1) At the time, being a young college student, I pigged out on junk food, often popcorn that I would pop in a pot using oil. I came to associate my cooking popcorn in this way with pneumothorax occurrences.
2) I was tall and quite underweight. I'm wondering if other young people who had spontaneous pneumothorax tend to be shaped similarly.
Oh. Never mind.
After that, the surgeon would have to contend with malpractice concerns while the patient healed from two holes in their chest, one unnecessary.
Sometimes it feels like a time bomb. I've been living with it for so long I just don't care anymore, it actually makes no difference in my life or plans. It prevented me from becoming a military pilot though.