New and confused - Need Your Advice

Hi Susan,I dont have your answers but am praying for good results for you.I also reccomend a web site called lung cancer support community. Very informative and helpful.

When my first x-ray showed a spot, I was able to call my sister who happpens to be a doctor. She said they should order a CAT scan, which they did. If the scan was very ominous, they would act immediately. If the spot was not obviously cancer, they would do a second scan in about 3 months. That's exactly what they did. When it it showed some growth, they did a PET/CAT scan. Mine turned out to be cancer, however, my sister and many of my friends told me stories where they had surgery only to find out that something else caused their lung nodules. My surgeon even told me a story of a patient he had had the week before that he was sure had cancer. She turned out to have TB--a serious condition, but treatable with antibiotics. Another friend had some dried mucus in his lung from a bout of bronchitis. There are several diseases that can cause lung nodules. Some are as serious as cancer. Some aren't. I would talk to either a pulmonary specialist or a lung surgeon specialist if I wanted a second opinion. I know it is hard, but if you are facing any kind of lung disease and/or lung surgery, the first thing you need to do is stop smoking. You will want to keep as much lung function as you possibly can so that your doctors can give you more options. Good luck!

Hi Susan;
I am 46 years old and had a tumor on my left lung with some Lymph node involvement. The tumor was to small for needle aspirations and in such spot that could cause the lung to collapse. My Pulmonay doctor said not to worry about them and come back in 3 months. I ignored his advise, thankfully so and went to another pulmonary doctor who had me in with a Heart Surgeon (they do lung surgery not Pulmonary docks like you would think) and the Heart surgeon consulted with the radiologist and decided that needle aspiration was out of the question so we need an open biopsy and I was diagnosed with stage 3a/ Non small cell lung carcineoma cancer. I have now gone thru chemo/radiation and have had my upper left lobe of the lung removed. After surgery we followed up with more chemo/radiation and am now on stage 3 of chemo and hopefully the final round. Good luck but I would personally not wait 3 months.Alicia

It never hurts to get a second opinion. I hope everything turned out ok.