pb50 Reading your post sounded like a scene in a horror movie. Vats was an acronym I was not familiar with.
I had "Robotic surgery" a" lobectomy of the left upper lobe The surgeon sat remotely but in the same room. Like a video game watching a screen while operating the controls with both hands and feet and voice recording in detail every procedure. VAT? The anesthesiologist was more hands-on. I had two small incisions, one for the camera, and the other for the "DaVinci Machines" tools, which were closed after surgery. Then another incision for a drain, and the receiver hung on the mobile tree next to my bed. When I was ready to go home they attached a similar but smaller container to my body and a nurse came to my house every day to check it, shortly thereafter she removed it, stitched it, gave me pads to cover it, and a kit to remove the stitches. I am 85 and seldom have pain except when my brain is trying to make me aware of something being untreated, no BS. They gave me oxycodone which I still have un-opened. It has been 5 years. A year ago I started aspirating, they discovered during my surgery they had severed the nerve to my left vocal (fold) chord, it is paralyzed and had become distorted allowing things I swallow to enter my airway. That's a story for another day, I am dealing with it.