long cough , heart burn , dry heaving, advice please - Cancer: Lung Message Board

kllym · 04-01-2004, 02:44 AM

My hubs is 35 and has smoked for 20 years ,he smokes at least 20 cigs a day and is a chronic marojana smoker around 3/4 a day more at weekends.
He has had a persistant cough for as long as i can remember more recently the cough sounds very hoarse . He also feels very unwell when he gets up and dry heaves a lot and generally looks and feels awful for the first few hours of the day. More recent he has been having persistant heartburn nearly every day now.
He went to docs who gave him omperazole tabs for the heaving and cough etc , she said it was a possible ulcer . He took the months supply as directed but still all is the same.
A few days ago he got a tightening pain in his chest which someone relived for him by bashing him on the back??????? Apparently her farther had the same thing , though he did not stop to ask what!

Are these symps down to GERD or an Ulcer or could they be a possible representation of a lung cancer....all advice welcomed

Lady_J_1_01 · 04-01-2004, 03:29 AM

Thier are so many things these symptoms 'could' represent, to the basic being "chronic irritation",(from the smoking/diet) I would pursue reading all you can about GERD,Ulcers and also returning to your doctor and being persistant till you feel comfortable with his/her answers, and also if the treatments are/arn't working. Going to the Dr. with validated concerns is never a waste of your time. It also helps to go with a list of questions in hand, of his symptoms, what they seem to be related to,what has been tried and works or dosent work and also refrence to any information you have found on your own. Thiers truth to 'the squeaky wheel gets the oil". Best wishes. LadyJ

haylee31 · 04-01-2004, 03:53 AM

I would have hubby be pushy with the doc's. There is a

very good chance the doc is right and it is no more than

a ulcer. I only worry because my mom ( 68 ) was a smoker

for almost 50 years had emphazema { spelling ? } for 20

of those years and was on a inhaler. For the last year

before she found out she had cancer. She had dry heeves,

very tired, aches and pains. She would go to the doc's

he would call the pains arthritis and not to worry about

the dry heeves and gave her naseau meds. This went on

for a year back and forth with nothing being done to check

deeper into her symptoms. Finaly in Aug. 02 her regular

doc was on vacation so she seen one of the other doc's.

he first told her the inhaler she was using was way not

strong enough and said he wanted a MRI done. It turned

out to be lung cancer already spread to liver,kidneys and

her neck. She passed away 7 months after finding out.

She always regreted not being more pushy with her

regular doc if she had maybe the cancer would not had

spread all over her body and she would of had more time.

I learned from this does not hurt to get a 2nd opinion.

Haylee