No bueno.

There's nothing like feeling the oncoming shooting pain of small pneumothorax while bobbing up and down in the middle of open water.

Thankfully I was in a wetsuit. Thankfully Mike was with me. And thankfully it passed within a few minutes.

I made it back to the beach safely and we packed up to head home.

The rest of the night I got to deal with that oh so fabulous sensation coming and going. It most noticeably painful while trying to laugh. We made the mistake of watching a comedy. In spite of the hilarity, I was feeling pretty miserable as a result.

Pneumothoraces are nothing new to me. I've had them on and off for arguably more than a decade. I finally learned just what it was in January 2004 when I found myself in the geriatric ward of the hospital for a week when my lung was 30%+ collapsed. Furthermore, I was pretty much out for the count for a good month while being hopped up on vicodin to numb the pain as well as the soreness from my side where they inserted the chest tube.

So needless to say, on the rare occasions I experience one of these suckers, it freaks me out. It's hard to tell at what degree they hit. It was the first time this has ever happened to me in the water...

...hopefully it'll be the last.