I had a pneumothorax in April. It was painful, I'm not gonna lie. But from what I got from my CF and local Pulmo Dr is that they are common in CFers. Mine happen for no reason. I was just sitting on my bed, taking my meds after CPT and starting hurting. My DH rushed me to the ER. It was spontanious. My Drs told me it could happen again (gave me tips to try to avoid that) or this could be my only one. I wasnt sick when it happened, it just seemed to happen for no reason. My Drs didnt freak out about. I havent heard one thing about a tx since having it. What surgery did ur son have? All I got was a chest tube. What is ur son's FEV1? My FEV1 before my pneumothorax was 31%....after was 32%. I had a chest tube for a week, it got infected and had to be removed a little early, & I had a course of strong IV meds for 16 days. By the end, I still had a sliver of lung down by the time everything was done in the middle of May. My local Dr said it should heal itself with time. So, with a lot of hard work, prayer, and diligance with my treatments (nebs/CPT or Vest), when I returned to my CF Center (Duke) in July they did a chest xray and said that my lung had completely healed and I didnt loose any lung function. My doctor was very happy with my local care and how I came back from it and never did he once meantion a tx...even with my already low lung functions.
So, if your son works hard, he should recover relatively well. Unless he already has low lung functions then I dont see why a tx would be talked about. I hope I was able to help you. I hope ur son gets feeling better. <img src="i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif" border="0">