Nervous and confused - Cancer: Lung Message Board

Mollyb123 · 11-13-2006, 01:15 PM

Hello everyone. I have been reading the posts on here for a while and as luck would have it, now I am posting myself! I recently went to a new doctor for a severe pain in my right side ( my own doctor had to retire due to breast cancer!). The new doctor ordered x-rays and a CT scan. The x-rays were fine but the CT scan showed a 1.5 mm nodule on my lower left lung. While waiting for the specialists to check out the scan I returned for more testing and when I got there they had canceled the tests I was to take and scheduled another Ct scan for my lungs.

This one showed the nodule again and three radiologists and three surgeons reviewed it! They called it extremely borderline, whatever that means. I do know it was a bit irregular which I am told is a good sign. I am being treated with strong antibiotics in case it is a bacterial infection. I understood that I would have to get another CT scan in three months but my doctor called and said thirty days! So I go next week for another one. I am confused and worried because of that change. I don't know whether my doctor is simply being more cautious than the specialists, figuring that if the antibiotics are working we will know by next week. If it is gone, halleleujah, but if it should be cancer would it actually change much in thirty days? I think from reading the posts on here that 1.5 is too small to do a biopsy, even though they did discuss a broncoscopy with me.

Any input would be greatly appreciated. The waiting is always the hardest part. I haven't told anyone but my husband because I don't want to worry my family so no one to talk to about all of this. I don't want to drive my hubby crazy with it, me being nuts right now is enough!

God bless all of you, and my prayers are with you. Molly

pantherwrestler · 11-13-2006, 05:12 PM

You will be in my thoughts in prayers. Your lucky you have a great doctor who is being on the cautious side. It's better to be safe then sorry. Please keep us informed on what happens, and I pray for the best.

Mollyb123 · 11-13-2006, 05:22 PM

Thank you pantherwrestler for the reply. Yes I am glad my doctor is being so aggressive about it all.

Does anyone know how large a nodule has to be before they can do a biopsy. She has told me it is in a bad place in my lower left lung. I am also concerned about radiation since I will have had a chest xray, abdominal xrays, mammography, and three CTs all within two months. Any info on that?

Thanks for the prayers, we all need those!

Molly

Janmarie2 · 11-13-2006, 06:23 PM

Molly, I will start by saying 1.5mm is really small and there are many things it could be so I will send lots of prayers your way and good thoughts your way that it is not lung cancer. If it is then hopefully you are catching it at a very early stage. I have met quite a few people that had surgery to remove an early lung cancer and are doing fine, 15, 20 and even 30 years later. Some had chemo and or radiation but some did not.

As for how much could it change in 30 days? If it was small cell lung cancer it can change alot in 30 days as that is an aggressive cancer. Non small cell it is hard to say as some seem to change fast but most are slow growing. I would want my doctor to be aggressive and not be taking a lets wait and see approach as it could be my life at stake so be glad your doctor is that way.

It could be a scar from an infection, a fungus here in California Cocci is a fungus that gets into the lungs, my dad has a small nodule that is an old TB scar or a handful of other things. Keep us posted as you learn more as there are many of us here should you need us and we will all cheer when you tell us it is not cancer and many of us could use some good news

JanMarie

DaveInVA · 11-13-2006, 06:43 PM

Hopefully like others said it will just be scar tissue or something benign. As far as the radiation goes I can tell you about the CT. I used to be a CT scanner field engineer. I also had many CTs and a PET scan also during my diagnostic phase and follow up. I had my right middle lobe and nearby nodes removed in March. CT scanning subjects you to a fair amount of radiation. An average chest CT is roughly equivalent to 500 standard chest X-rays. A chest X-ray is about the same radiation you receive from nature in 3-6 days. A chest CT scan is on average 700 millirem and a abdomen scan is average 800 millirem and a PET scan is 900 millirem. Depending on where they scanned you and how many times (with and without contrast etc) these number can go up or down a bit. Those figures are for a 4 slice scanner. The newer 64 slice scanners that are starting to replace them can put out even more. Radiation is additive. You get an average of 360 millirem a year from nature. If you had 3 chest CT scans you got about 2.1 rem or about 5.8 years of what you would have gotten from nature. Depending on what report you read you have anywhere from a 1 in 1000 to 1 in 2000 chance of getting a fatal cancer from ONE chest CT scan and of course the chances get worse each time. This cancer may not show up for many many years. Of course they say its still not bad considering Americans have about a 1 in 24 chance of getting cancer during their lifetimes anyways without the extra radiation. I got about 3.7 rem from all the various scans and I have requested MRI whenever possible for my follow ups and my Doc agreed. Hope this helps some.

Dave