Increasing pain over time after Video Assisted Thoracic Surgery

Thank you so much for your prompt reply StanKent. It is very informative. I have multifocal adenocarcinoma and lymph nodes OK for now. They were initially enlarged after surgery. But my CT scans find all kinds of other stuff, scarring, inflammation, interstitial disease.
But I have now had an interesting development. Last night I realized I felt good and this morning I woke up with little side pain and my deep breath pain is much improved. I knew that yesterday morning they gave me BENADRYL 50 mg injection and methylPREDNISolone 125 mg injection before doing the CT scan with contrast. I once had hives from contrast, so I always pre-medicate and then have no issues. Now a sudden side pain that goes away suddenly may not be unusual, but a long developing deep breath pain to decrease suddenly would seem unusual. I wonder if the dose of steroids helped.
The CT is locally done and not Mayo so not very deep on lungs but shows I have no other issues which is good. It is a challenge to coordinate testing between institutions. They can't compare to past results.

Vic. Your pain on taking a deep breath sounds very similar to my experiences. I had VATS wedge last November After this surgery I had a broad spectrum of different pains that gradually get better in the healing process. In April, I don't remember if I specifically had deep
breathing pain at that time, but my follow up CT in April had a bit more chest fluid (pleural effusion) than thought normal and had it removed and tested. The tests showed my lymphoma in the fluid, but unsure if the fluid was caused by the lymphoma. Follow up in June was scheduled and near that time I had bad chest pain on a deep breath and and they tested for PE but found additional fluid and removed it. I think my deep breath pain was a result of the additional chest fluid building up. Chest fluid can be caused by many things. They decided mine was the lymphoma and received treatment for lymphoma. My breathing is fine now or should I say, back to my new normal. I go back in November for CT and blood work. Your Mayo Dr. will need to evaluate the recent CT and proceed from there.
Fluid removal (Thoracentesis) was not bad. Hope this helps.

Thanks for positioning my question. Yes, I did go to Urgent care (at 5:30am this morning when nobody there!!!) My Urgent Care is also Emergency Room capable, so they did blood work, flu test (No Covid test since I had in August), EKG and CT scan with contrast for PE and from neck to groin. There is nothing that could be a problem, just some fluid in lung. But with previous VAT surgery that is to be expected. They want me to follow up with my Pulmonologist at Mayo who knows my background before leaving on my trip. I am waiting for his call back. He can decide about any treatment and if lung needs to be drained or not (my guess is NO..as that is a risky thing to do).
Mayo is two hours away and people here go there for the serious stuff, but obviously one needs a Primary Care Provider close by. Coordination of tests and care can be challenging, because symptoms happen that may or may not be related to a condition being treated at Mayo. Who to call first?
I do wonder why my deep breath pain severity has increased in the last 6 months, so look forward to hearing about the experience of others

Hi @vic83, I'm sorry to hear that you're experiencing pain and that it is getting worse, not better. I'm tagging fellow members like @corgimenow @aksinspringfield @stanleykent @deljr who also had video assisted thoracic surgery (VATS). Perhaps someone has had a similar experience.

Did you decide to go to urgent care?