Goldendoodle- Lung bulla / pneumothorax / lobectomy experience

I created my Reddit account for the sole purpose of sharing our story. I struggled to find information from real people when I was dealing with our crisis, and hope this can help someone. & let me say first that if you are reading this, I am so sorry for what you are going through!

My dog, Jaxon, is an 8y/o mini goldendoodle. 25lb and like all dogs, he is the best dog ever.
He has never had a health problem before and until this incident, was perfectly normal.

I came home from work one day and found Jaxon draped across the side of the bed struggling to breathe. It was like he was struggling to take deep breaths, and I could hear every inhale he took. Like a constant wheezing. Eventually this turned into a cough. A few days prior, we noticed at night that we could sometimes hear a slight wheezing as he slept, but didn't think too much of it. In hindsight, this was our first red flag for what was coming.  We rushed him to the ER where they did extensive tests on him.

Ultimately after chest x-rays, we were told they spotted a bullae on his lung. They were surprised given he is a small dog and this usually occurs in deep chested dogs. Specifically, he had a spontaneous pneumothorax. This is a life-threatening medical emergency where air leaks from the lung into the chest cavity without any history of trauma. The vet believes he was born like this and truly nothing caused this, and this outcome was inevitable.

Shocked and distraught, we began looking at our options. The dr suggested surgery for the biggest guarantee at fixing the problem immediately & permanently. X-rays and CT scans only showed so much, and they really wanted surgery to be able to see what was going on to fix the problem. The downside was how invasive this would be, the recovery period, and the costs.

We opted for a less invasive path forward first which was having a thoracentesis performed (needle/chest tubes to remove air). He stayed overnight at the hospital for 3 nights with the chest tubes to drain the air around his lungs. At the time of discharge, he seemed perfectly fine. At this point, we had spent $10.5k all in. ER check in, overnight fees, procedure, medicine. 

I drove him home the day he was discharged and within 2hr of being home, he began breathing heavily & loudly.  Once the coughing and vomiting restarted, I rushed him back to the ER. At this point, surgery was our only option if we wanted to keep him alive. I can't describe the feeling of having to make that decision.
Knowing we already spend $10,000+ and could still lose him felt like my world was ending.  We opted for surgery and he had a partial lung lobectomy performed to remove the damaged portion of his lung. He was in the hospital 3 more nights to recover and continue chest x-rays. All went well, and we brought him home. He was like a zombie picking him up! Very sedated (understandably) and this lethargic state continued for many weeks while we needed to keep him calm to recover.
Surgery was $11k. 

Recovery was 2 full months of zero activity. He was confined to our bedroom, but we moved the bed to the floor & there was no furniture to jump on or be a temptation. He only went outside to potty and walking was limited to getting up to eat/drink.
He was on 4 different medications. Each med had various doses & times, with the majority being 3x per day. We had to take time off and work from home to ensure he had 24/7 care and could take his medicine throughout the day as scheduled. Jaxon is very active and gets the zoomies easily, so keeping him calm and in a zero-stress environment was key to this recovery. We did not travel or let visitors in the house for 3mo.
He had to have 4 check up appointments in that first month post-surgery.  & then 1 appt after a full month had passed. 3-4mo in, we began short walks and letting him free-roam the house again. 

In total, this was a $22k adventure.  In hindsight, had we opted for surgery the day we arrived at the ER, we would have saved over $10k. (We live just outside Milwaukee, pricing was typical for Midwest).
It's an impossible decision and one that can only be made personally.  My husband and I both have good jobs, no kids, and only needed to take a small portion out of life savings. It was still a major financial hit to us, but I share this because I know this is not everyone's reality and tough decisions sometimes have to be made. The images & sounds of watching my dog suffer in front of me is something that will haunt me forever. Putting him down would have destroyed me, but would have been the most humane and loving decision had we not opted for surgery. There is zero shame in giving that kind of gift to your dog as they enter the afterlife. 

I am typing this today, 6mo post-surgery. Life has relatively returned to complete normalcy. 
We are back to taking long walks, running, and getting the zoomies.  He seems to tire out more quickly than before, but nothing of concern and given his age, he's still doing great.

I will never have enough gratitude for the phenomenal staff that saved his life & cared so deeply for him and my own wellbeing during this time.
Life is so precious. Dogs are even more precious.  I thank God daily that I was given more days with Jaxon.