Hi I (31y/o M) had a right middle lobectomy via thoracotomy to remove a pulmonary carcinoid tumor, 5.5cm.
I left the hospital 6 days later and saw the surgeon three and a half weeks after to get an x-ray and consultation, all of the tumor was removed with no spread to the pleura or adjacent lymph nodes, it was typical thank God and the surgeon was happy with my recovery so far. I had no issues until then and didnt need to cough nor did i cough up any blood or mucus. I do not smoke and had not been doing any strenuous physical activities.
The following night at 11pm some hours after cleaning my house and being a little more active, filing up a mop bucked and carrying it around, doing shopping ect, I had some bubbling feeling in the lung on inhales (not when exhaling) and tried to cough up to see if there was anything in the lung, it didnt feel like there was much to cough and after I cleared my throat I spat a very small (couple of grains of rice size) amount of bright red fresh blood with no discoloured mucus 3 times in all then all clear.
I then went to the Emergency dept, but within an hour or two the bubbling had stopped, I got a chest x-ray which showed something (I dont know what) that could have been normal due to the surgery but they wanted to do a CT scan to be sure there was no blood clot. The results of the scan showed no blood clot but some soft tissue in the area that the doctor said could be normal as I was still healing but she was not an expert in this type of surgery so sent the scans to my surgeon with a report to see if he wanted to investigate further or if it was normal. They then discharged me.
It is now two days later (4weeks post op) and I have had a small amount of this bubbling feeling on and off, but less than the first instance, esp when i am lying on my back, and today I coughed up another similar amount of somewhat congealed blood, still pretty bright red. otherwise i am feeling good and have no other symptoms of clots or chest infection etc.
Should I be worried about this? Or is it normal?
