@qbink - I think that you might be looking at all of the "what ifs" and it's driving you to worry even more. I do this all the time and it drives everyone around me nuts. During surgery, you are intubated. A machine breathes for you. You are carefully monitored for the level of gas exchanges to make sure that your O2 level is high enough. Anesthesia is carefully monitored. I found this simple video. You probably are familiar with all of this. Please rest assured that an OR team does everything it can to make sure that you stay healthy during any operation. My second lung operation was very long. It was 7 1/2 hours. I had already lost my lower right lobe 10 years before. My second operation was on my other lung. Needless to say, I'm here to talk about it! What have you done prior to your SOB to handle problems so that you can come to a peaceful understanding?

Me too!!!! Going under anestesia is actually one of my delimmas at the moment. I have a surgery that I keep rescheduling, because I'm trying to wait until I can breathe. Because the risks of breathing problems and anestesia are well known. My doctor thats been running all these tests for me that come back normal, is insisting that I'm fine and can be cleared for surgery, but he doesn't actually believe that I'm having the struggle that I am with my breathing simply because of my tests all being normal. Its a scary thought to think, it I follow his advice and go ahead with the surgery, and then some complication arise such as respiratory failure. Its not an absolutely necessary surgery, it can be put off for a while longer, and im hoping to find some relief for my breathing or at least some answers, before I go ahead and schedule a date for surgery... which I hope can happen sometime..