Hey all. First, let me start off by saying that I know nothing about my condition. I haven't been to a doctor. I am a recent ex smoker, which I basically began after symptoms started. So when I would smoke, I began to have chest pains. Nothing too alarming, a little back pain at times as well. As time went by after quitting, the chest pain subsided for the most part. I decided that just to test the theory, I'd have some cigarettes. It had been about a month. The pain came back almost immediately, so the relapse didn't last long.
So naturally, my mind would wander to a cancer diagnosis out of concern. I never had any other symptoms. No nagging cough, no blood in phlegm, only these chest pains, which I would think if I had cancer, would stay with me throughout the quitting process, and afterwards.
So I wanted to gain knowledge from all you about some of your early stage symptoms. I know not everyone's still in that boar, but you were at one time. What was in that made you say, "this is worse than I probably think it is" or, did you have a gut feeling something was wrong?
I know that's where I'm at right now. Because I didn't get any "tell-tale" signs other than the chest pain, I wanted to see what people thought of that before I go see the doc. Being so close to the Roswell Park Cancer Institute is comforting to me in a way, but I need to know what's going on first, and I thought I'd start her before I lose my mind and maybe more..
Let me also say that I admire each and everyone on here with this disease. Although it's not necessarily a death sentence, spending what could be precious time for you sitting on a message board helping others is amazing and you deserve thanks.
The Following User Says Thank You to Jooner18 For This Useful Post: hojo234 (07-29-2012)
My mum, who has recently been diagnosed, only sought medical treatment once she was coughing up blood. As a smoker of 50 years, she had given up smoking 5 weeks earlier and thought that the resulting chest problems were possibly just related to that. Her chest X-ray showed nothing but that was eventually discovered to only be because the tumour in her lung was directly behind her heart and therefore obscured on the Xray.
She had no chest pain, just shortness of breath and only coughed occasionally (although when she did, it contained blood).
Her cancer appears to be treatable but of course there is no way of telling if the treatment would have been quicker and less drastic if she had been diagnosed sooner. All I would say to you is that if you have any chest-related pains etc and you have ever smoked, it's not a bad idea to get it checked out.
My husband, who has SCLC Extensive, had absolutely no symptoms whatsoever. It was found on a routine chest X-ray. He is now on his third line of chemo, although the tumors keep popping up. Go get yourself checked out.
Re: The early (or later) signs of Lung Cancer 
