I havent been on the board lately just to read once in awhile. I had a scare becasue my RA doc had me get an xray and they found 2 nodules on my right lung.So he had me get a cat scan.
My internist is also, one of the finest cancer doctors in our area so he looked at a cat scan He told me we will wait till september because the nodules are very tiny. Then I will get another cat scan that has dye in it that will show the hot spots (cancer) if there are any.
He said at this time they are too small for a biopsy.
I am thankful for my RA doctor for finding this. His office started the practice of each patient getting a chest xray every year and if it werent for that I'd never had found this.
Otherwise I am feeling great I even walked the 3 miles for y-me on Mothers Day.
I smoked for forty years and really didnt expect to get off easy with such a long smoking history. So far I am lucky.
Oh how scarey. The wait makes it feel 10 times longer I'm sure. I hope everything is ok and you're very lucky to have a doc who's so on top of things. My thoughts are with you.
I'll keep you in my prayers as you deal with this situation. Stay positive.
My heart and prayers are with for you.
I had to answer your post as I know exactly what you are going through. Please Please...do not allow yourself to get to afraid right now.
I am going through the same problem. My doctors are keeping a very close watch over my lungs because I have nodules on both my lungs, liver and kidneys but the lungs nodules are the only ones that are starting to grow and increase in size. No one can come up with a diagnose at this time. Like you, my nodules are to small to biopsy. Right now I am waiting for the results of my last cat scan, to see if the nodules have grown anymore or I have gotten new ones. If they have, I have agreed to try a certain drug to see if it it will help decrease them.
My oncologist says that there is more than cancer that can show up in a persons lungs as nodules, like TB, beginnings of emphysema, past bronchitis bouts, pleurisy and other environmental and occupational causes and since I have RA, it could be that or even fungi that lives in the air we breath.
It is hard to have to live a constant waiting game. Waiting to see if it is "C" but I have to keep faith that as long as they are still to small to be biopsied and more time keeps rolling by, it means that I have a darn good chance that they are not "C". So please keep faith that you will not either. Keep your chin up, keep walking and continue to have confidence with your doctors, that they are going to do everything in their power to get you diagnosed and on some form of theraphy for what ever it is that you might have.
If you need to talk with someone about your lung nodules or have any questions, please feel free to PM or e-mail me. I definitely will do everyhting I can to help you through this very perplexing time.
Please take care of yourself and let us know how you are doing.
BIG HUGS
Hugs to you thinkthinn and to waddles. i hope this is not the big "c" for both of you. Both of you please keep us update on everything. You guys will be in my thoughts. I too had a scare. I was employed as a physician's assistant and our office was right over the Xray office and I had become very friendly with all of the girls that worked there. One day I was having lunch in my office and was kind of bored so I went down to Xray and one thing led to another and I ended up having a chest xray. Now mind you, I had no symptoms at all, this was just for fun. Within the hour the phone rang and it was the radiologist calling to speak with my doctor and as he took the phone I stood behind him and listened and when he turned to face me, he was as white as a sheet. He told the radiologist that he must have viewed the wrong film and ordered me to go back for another chest xray, which I did. There was a growth the size of a 50 cent coin on the left lower lobe of my lung. So my doctor had a meeting with all of the physicians at the hospital to discuss this and it was decided that this was cancer even without a biopsy. So I was sent to another hospital where lung surgery was a routine event and to make a long story short, I had the surgery and it was discovered that it was a sclerosing hemangioma and not cancer, so they removed the left lower lobe and I have not had a problem since.
There was a nodule found on a chest x-ray I had a few years ago for a routine check up at work. I freaked out as well. After the CAT scan the radiologist determined it was scar tissue. Im wondering now if it is from the RA.
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RA-seropositive, ANti-CCP positive
Were you guys having problems that prompted them to do the x-rays or did your doctors just do a random x-ray?
I've only had one chest x-ray done in my RD's office. That was right before I started Humira. My GP did one once when I had horrible broncitis that they thought was phenmoina.
Thinkthin...I received your PM...Hope you are having a good day.
I have routine cat scans because of my past history with BC. That is how they knew I had them and how they are watching them. Mine never showed up in a chest Xray.
Thinkthinn and Waddles:
How scary! I'm sorry you are dealing with this on top of everything else! Please keep us posted...we care.
Phats
I know how frightened you must be right now, but nodules can be many things as some of the other posters have mentioned. RA can certainly cause them, or scar tissue from previous bouts with pneumonia can be mistaken for nodules. I have tiny nodules in both lungs presumably from scleroderma. They have been followed with CT scans, first every 3 months, now every six months. The test your doctor is talking about may be a PET scan, it is very useful in distinguishing benign tissue, which is what I am sure you will be found to have, from tumors. All the best! PatLovieBest of luck to both of you Waddles and ThinkThin. I have had 2 cancer scares, benighn both times.
Our imaginations can be worse than reality. I'd like to send mine to the moon with no return address. Fear and worry are not helpful critters.
I had a CT scan to check the valves in my heart, it detected something on my adrenal gland and I was supposed to have a MRI for that, but I would have had to remove my insulin pump for that, so after I blew it off for a year, the lab called back and wanted to schedule a CT for it and I can do that when I get my remicade so I had it done last time, but the tech said what are you here for and I said something on my adrenal gland and he said yes, but also your lungs and I said no, and he had to call the dr for a reason to do my lungs too. Long run on there. He told me there had been a nodule on my lung also, which the dr had never told me about!!!! Probably because I'd freak out, anyway, both the adrenal whatever and the lung nodule were okay, but I'm seeing the dr on Friday for a checkup and I'm going to have to tell her don't you think I have enough to deal with the diabetes and the RA and could you just stop looking for more to put on my plate.