7 Years 101 days - Closure7 Years 101 days - Closure
I'm Quitting Alcohol
Comedian David Boyle recounts a tense hospital visit, refusing another CT scan while searching for answers about his post-surgery lung issues. After several confused doctors, a senior surgeon finally explains the harmless cause of his symptoms, giving him the closure he needed to move forward in sobriety.
15:02•24 Aug 2026
Seven Years Sober, Still Swearing at Hospitals: Boyle Gets His Lung Closure
Episode Overview
- Sobriety doesn’t prevent health scares, but it helps you face them head-on and ask direct questions.
- Repeated hospital visits highlighted how different doctors can miss issues that an experienced specialist spots quickly.
- Concerns about CT scan radiation led Boyle to refuse further scans and push for safer alternatives.
- The final thoracic surgeon explained the ballooning side as a temporary muscle and skin issue, not lung damage, providing much-needed peace of mind.
- Clear information and one competent doctor turned weeks of stress into calm, showing the value of persistence in your own care.
“"Getting a CT scan is like getting 500 fucking x-rays at once, it's not good for you."”
How do people cope with the challenges of staying sober? This short, sharp episode from "I'm Quitting Alcohol" drops you straight into David Boyle’s hectic mix of hospital corridors, medical jargon, and stubborn self-advocacy. You’ll hear Boyle, now seven years and 101 days sober, wrestle with intense chest pain and a bizarre side effect of lung surgery: his side literally puffing out "like a fucking balloon" whenever he coughs or sneezes.
Worried about upcoming flights and sick of feeling like a ticking time bomb, he heads back to emergency demanding answers, and you’ll feel every bit of the frustration as he’s shuffled through waiting rooms, blood tests and multiple doctors who admit they don’t really know what’s going on. A big part of the episode centres on his refusal to undergo another CT scan after already having one recently.
Boyle talks openly about his fear of radiation exposure, backed up by doctors who admit they’ve had the same worries themselves. "Getting a CT scan is like getting 500 fucking x-rays at once," one surgeon tells him, and that line hits hard for anyone anxious about medical procedures.
The turning point comes when a senior Indian thoracic surgeon finally examines him, immediately recognises the issue as a loose muscle and skin from the earlier incision, and calmly explains that his lung is fine, his x-rays look good, and the strange ballooning is temporary and harmless. Boyle calls him "absolute fucking money" – the first real moment of relief after weeks of anxiety.
For people in recovery, this episode shows how sobriety doesn’t magically remove life’s chaos, but it does mean you’re present enough to chase proper answers, question doctors, and sit with fear instead of numbing it. If you’ve ever felt lost in a medical maze while trying to stay sober, this raw, funny, and very human story might feel strangely reassuring – what questions are you ready to start asking for yourself?
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