Aa
Is this cancer?
I'm a 31 year old male, relatively healthy with no major health issues until now. I am a smoker (about 5-10 cigs a day for the past 13 years). I've been sick for over a month now. First I found a tumor on my rear pelvis area, but I saw two doctors and they said it was a non-cancerous lipoma but they only examined it by touch. In the meantime, I thought I was coming down with a cold/flu, but here I am still having issues over a month later. It started with sporatic sharp pains in my chest/lungs. Things have been escalating in the last few weeks, and here is my current state:
* Fatigue and Cloudy Head...I sometimes feel as though I'm going to pass out or fall over even when I'm just walking from room to room. Trouble concentrating
* Shortness of breath. I often feel as though I'm gasping for air whenever I try to exert myself. I've had congestion as well but I think that is due to allergies.
* No cough, but slight sore throat
* General Soreness and occasional pains that seem to travel. From my hip bones to my inner chest/lungs, to my shins. Its not constant in one place and every few days it seems to shifts from one place to the next.
* Bad constipation.
* Fatigue and Cloudy Head...I sometimes feel as though I'm going to pass out or fall over even when I'm just walking from room to room. Trouble concentrating
* Shortness of breath. I often feel as though I'm gasping for air whenever I try to exert myself. I've had congestion as well but I think that is due to allergies.
* No cough, but slight sore throat
* General Soreness and occasional pains that seem to travel. From my hip bones to my inner chest/lungs, to my shins. Its not constant in one place and every few days it seems to shifts from one place to the next.
* Bad constipation.
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hi David,
Lung cancer usually presents in the middle aged and the elderly (although people in their thirties can also be affected) with a mass in the ches (usually picked up on Xray or CT) which initially has no symptoms. Later, cough, pain, blood in sputum, and breathlessness develop. By the time the lung cancer spreads to other organs (brain, adrenals, bone, and others) the patient is quite sick, and displays symptoms related to the organ involved (for example seizures, severe bone pain etc).
A metaststic lung cancer would not usually present with some palpable bumps (lipoma) over your lower back.
I hope you have quit smoking by now.
Good luck!
Lung cancer usually presents in the middle aged and the elderly (although people in their thirties can also be affected) with a mass in the ches (usually picked up on Xray or CT) which initially has no symptoms. Later, cough, pain, blood in sputum, and breathlessness develop. By the time the lung cancer spreads to other organs (brain, adrenals, bone, and others) the patient is quite sick, and displays symptoms related to the organ involved (for example seizures, severe bone pain etc).
A metaststic lung cancer would not usually present with some palpable bumps (lipoma) over your lower back.
I hope you have quit smoking by now.
Good luck!
Just curious, for my own sanity, what makes you so sure that I am not experiencing symptoms of metastatic lung cancer? Is it my age? What kind of symptoms would I be experiencing if I was a victim of metastatic lung cancer?
Thank you again for all of your help and advice. It has put my mind at ease for now. :).
Thank you again for all of your help and advice. It has put my mind at ease for now. :).
Thanks for your comments Kamal. I will go to the doctor definately, but unfortunately I don't have any health insurance at the moment, so I need to wait until my application gets approved before I can do so. If only we had universal healthcare here in the states!
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
Hi David,
Your symptoms don't sound like cancer to me.
You obviously have health issues which have not been diagnosed yet, but it is very unlikely that you have metastatic lung cancer.
You need to consult a good internist who will perform a physical examination, order the appropriate tests, reach the correct diagnosis, and treat accordingly. You may also like to seek help for dealing with the trauma you had been through while caring for your mother when she was terminally ill.
And, above all, you must stop smoking. Smoking can lead to many diseases, including cancer. If you need professional help in quitting smoking, please seek it.
Please dont worry about your health. Seek good medical opinion, and a councellors help.
All the best, and God Bless!
Your symptoms don't sound like cancer to me.
You obviously have health issues which have not been diagnosed yet, but it is very unlikely that you have metastatic lung cancer.
You need to consult a good internist who will perform a physical examination, order the appropriate tests, reach the correct diagnosis, and treat accordingly. You may also like to seek help for dealing with the trauma you had been through while caring for your mother when she was terminally ill.
And, above all, you must stop smoking. Smoking can lead to many diseases, including cancer. If you need professional help in quitting smoking, please seek it.
Please dont worry about your health. Seek good medical opinion, and a councellors help.
All the best, and God Bless!
Ran over the character limit so I have to post the rest as a comment:
* Cracking and tender joints (all over the place)
* I have found a few more bumps along my rear pelvis and now there is a sharp pain in the vertebrae above the tailbone and I think there may be a new bump on my tailbone but I'm not sure if its cartilage that I'm feeling. A doctor felt one of the new bumps and said it was another lipoma, but they haven't done any sort of biopsy or anything to confirm..
* General loss of appetite and bad taste in my mouth
* I get the chills every so often and feel feverish although I don't seem to have a temperature, more commonly now than before.
* I've been really depressed and moody and I think I am starting to suffer from occasional panic attacks
* Just last night I started feeling numbness in my legs and arms and now my legs will shake violently and uncontrollably every so often. When I lay down this is worse, when I'm standing up, it feels better
My mother died of lung cancer (she was not a smoker) a few years ago and I was her primary caretaker at the end and I am experiencing a lot of trauma around this. Part of me thinks that this experience is causing me to tailspin out of control thinking what I have is also cancer.I am paranoid that I have lung cancer that has metastasized and is rapidly spreading to my bones/spine which is why I have the new tingling/numbness in my limbs. I've also suspected I might have fibromyalgia or lyme's disease although I am in California and I don't think it is common here.
Are these symptoms common with a cancer diagnosis? Any advice to share? What else could this possibly be? Please help me. I'm so scared.
Thank you in advance and god bless,
David
* Cracking and tender joints (all over the place)
* I have found a few more bumps along my rear pelvis and now there is a sharp pain in the vertebrae above the tailbone and I think there may be a new bump on my tailbone but I'm not sure if its cartilage that I'm feeling. A doctor felt one of the new bumps and said it was another lipoma, but they haven't done any sort of biopsy or anything to confirm..
* General loss of appetite and bad taste in my mouth
* I get the chills every so often and feel feverish although I don't seem to have a temperature, more commonly now than before.
* I've been really depressed and moody and I think I am starting to suffer from occasional panic attacks
* Just last night I started feeling numbness in my legs and arms and now my legs will shake violently and uncontrollably every so often. When I lay down this is worse, when I'm standing up, it feels better
My mother died of lung cancer (she was not a smoker) a few years ago and I was her primary caretaker at the end and I am experiencing a lot of trauma around this. Part of me thinks that this experience is causing me to tailspin out of control thinking what I have is also cancer.I am paranoid that I have lung cancer that has metastasized and is rapidly spreading to my bones/spine which is why I have the new tingling/numbness in my limbs. I've also suspected I might have fibromyalgia or lyme's disease although I am in California and I don't think it is common here.
Are these symptoms common with a cancer diagnosis? Any advice to share? What else could this possibly be? Please help me. I'm so scared.
Thank you in advance and god bless,
David
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