An update

I haven't posted on here in a while as it was getting a little repetitive. Every morning was similar...some improvement in the arm and generally getting better. 

The arm

I am glad to be able to say that I now have far better mobility in my arm and hand. The painful sensation on my skin when it is touched has almost completely gone! The pain started to ease off gradually with me being able to gently scratch the skin to being able to apply quite a lot of pressure. Although the sensitivity was easing up, this seemed to be replaced by a new pain that consisted of a muscular ache through the arm and difficulty in extending the arm straight and moving my fingers properly. This was obviously not only frustrating but also a little worrying. I decided to keep an eye on it however and came to the conclusion after some on-line reading that it was likely all to do with the repair of the nerve. So I tried to continue with my stretches as best I could. 
Thankfully, every morning that I woke up my movement was ever so slightly better. Over the past two days movement has improved greatly and today the only real issue I am having is with my fingers. The only other issue I have is an itchy and slightly painful feeling on the skin again. It is different to before as it hurts when I don't touch my arm, but eases off when pressure is applied. I bought a tubular support bandage which I have put on both the upper and lower arm and the compression seemed to help. Today however I don't feel the need for this which is great :)

Breathing

Breathing has been improved with the spirometer now consistently reaching at least 4000ml which is great. The only time I have an issue is first thing in a morning where the pain in my neck which occurs on a deep breath is too much to inhale fully. This eases off with heat and movement however. It still hurts on taking a deep breath however so this is something I plan to bring up when I have the opportunity to. 

The wounds

As for the scars....well one of the scabs has gone and the scar looks pretty good to be honest! Should be barely visible eventually as promised. Still waiting for the other one to follow suit!

Exercise

I have also managed to go for a walk up a hill which felt great and got the heart rate up. Spending weeks with the heart rate not going above that of a walking pace has made me feel lethargic and unfit, so I figured an uphill walk gets the benefit of a raised heart rate, without causing too much pain in the chest area. 

Made it to the top of the hill!

Anxiety

I will say that I am still suffering from some anxiety despite a seemingly positive recovery. I think this is normal, but I don't want it to start to take over my life. It isn't healthy to constantly monitor your breathing and every little twinge with the worry that it is another collapse or a complication of surgery. 
I was struggling with this anxiety the other night and the focus I had on my breathing only made things worse. It is strange but as soon as you think about your breathing, it becomes unnatural as you try and breathe in a rhythm that you think is right. This in turn makes me feel like I am not able to breathe properly, which makes me anxious. And anxiety does nothing but make breathing feel heavy and occasionally gives me heart palpitations. You can see then how merely thinking about breathing leads down a silly path. 
My partner talked some sense in to me which helped. The fact I know that I am being irrational also helps...but also makes me annoyed with myself. 
So....I accept it will happen sometimes, but I am making every effort for this not to become normal behaviour. I don't want to fall asleep thinking about my lungs, the wounds, my breathing, it isn't good and there are far better things to be thinking about. 

I have however bought my self an oximeter for my finger to measure blood oxygen saturation levels.You could say this is over the top I guess, but knowing my condition I figured this will only help to decrease any anxiety and it is a useful tool for those moments where phantom pains may cause me concern. With this and my spirometer to measure lung volume I feel a little better that there is a lot I can do from home to monitor my health. 

Follow up X-Ray disappointment

One reason for the increase in anxiety that I forgot to mention is that my follow up X-Ray after two weeks came back as still having air above the lung. I didn't get to speak to the doctor, so this was relayed to me by the nurse. Apparently it has reduced a little bit, but I needed to go back in 5 days. I'm not sure why they think 5 days is long enough if it hasn't' done a lot in two weeks, but maybe they want to make sure that it isn't a small bleb that keeps popping and improving?  This is why I wish I had requested the doctor speak to me, because now I want to know what this might mean. Will it be left to heal? Will it need aspirating? Will I go forbid need a chest drain or more surgery? I don't think it will....at least I hope that if this is a possibility that the doctor would have come and explained this to me to prepare for the possibility. 
So, I guess on Wednesday I will know more. In the meantime I continue to do my breathing exercises and increase my walking in the hopes that this might help speed up my recovery. Fingers crossed the little bit of air on the lung has gone, or at least reduced some more, when I visit on Wednesday.