Very Scared

I went in for an Xray of my spine and came away wondering if I might have cancer!

They found out that I have a 6-7 mm pulmonary nodule( their wording) inside my left lung. ( A CT scan is in the works once my insurence gives me a referral ok).

I'm shocked, as I just had a breast biopsy 2 weeks ago and they never even picked it up on their Xrays, mammograms and unltrasounds that day( and they did at least two sets of each to place the wires for the breast biopsies).

A little history about me, I started smoking in 1980, when I was 10 yrs old and I quit in 1999. I have asthma, chronic bronchitis, and acute empyshema(sp?). REcent tests found that  I also had  a very high sed rate meaning a high rate of imflammation in the blood. I also found out that my platelet count is low.

I was getting bronchitis at least once a year but in the last few years not as often though I had both that and phneumonia last winter.

The other thing is that for months now I have been very short of breath and I do mean VERY, just walking up stairs or biking. I never went to the Dr. as I thought it might be my MS or Fibromyalgia.

Could this all be connected? Are these bad signs?

[moonchild1970]

[moonchild1970]

please can someone at least answer me?

[belle123916]

maybe try a post to the dr. to patient board on the Respitory Forum? It is sometimes hard to post - they only take a certain amount per day - but maybe can help you?  Good luck.

[moonchild1970]

thanks

[Enoch Choi, MD]

Hi!  I'm one of the docs from the dr. to patient boards.

The breast mammos, ultrasounds and xrays don't look at your lungs

19 years of smoking is a long time, and is the reason for your emphysema.

"i never went to the dr." i'm so sorry you didn't.  maybe you'd have found the nodule earlier.  But it's pretty small still.

The CT scan is very important to see how it looks, but if it's suspicious, you may need biopsy of the nodule.