Hi Tana,
You have had histoplasmosis many years ago. This infection caused inflammation in the lungs which led to scarring. Over a period of time, calcium was deposited over the scars which showed up as patches on your X-ray. There is no robust evidence that removing these scars and calcifications will confer you any clinical benefit.
Carcinogens from tobacco in cigarette smoke can get deposited anywhere in the lungs and not selectively on the calcified patches.
Resolve to quit smoking as it has many deleterious effects.
Good Luck!
Hi,
No one is ever "doomed to lung cancer", so please do not worry about this.
However, as a general rule, you should understand that smoking is injurious to health. It can cause several diseases apart from lung cancer.
Although there is no convincing data that occasional smoking (a few cigarettes a week) substantially increases the risk of cancer, there is good data to show that the longer one smokes (you have already done over 15 years), the greater the ill-effects.
Dealing with kids can indeed be stressful, but there are better ways of dealing with it than smoking. Children tend to follow the example set by their parents, and surely you would not like your child to smoke one day.
Please quit smoking. Completely. Today.
All the best, and God Bless!
My big question is about the calcifications and if tar accunulates on them? And if there has been research on removing them?
Thank you, Tana Allen