has anyone here had an xray on their lungs

[rickster]

have had a cough for a couple weeks now

coughed up blood yesterday so went to clinic and sent for xray this morning

doc said that i have a touch of pnemonia but they also founds steaks on my lungs and want

the radiologist to look at xrays and will let me knnow fri what they find

so i googled lung xray streaks and the first thing that pops up is lung cancer

so i am wondering if anyone here has had this same thing and could tell me what it was they had

i am a little worried to say the least

 

any insight would be appreciated

 

Rick

[Twocoda]

ive had it done years ago ...there was a unexplained"mark" on my right lung....which by the way was painful..(hence the reason i even went to the doc) ...so i didnt even get home and there was a message to go to the hospital for nuclear ( something or other) medicine where they filled me with some liquid light stuff to check me out thoroughly...i lite up like a christmas tree on the tv screen showing every little capillary in my chest cavity including my lungs (kinda kewl)...as it turns out ...i had an internal bruise from "buddy" sliding into to second base with his foot up...(that i forgot about)....i was worried too but as it turned out for me to be best case scenario...it possibly can very well be for you too...Docs dont take chances when it comes to things like this for fear of liability ...so they are dillegent for this stuff...

 

Best wishes

[Rob]

Don't get yourself all freaked out Rickster. I had pain in my upper lung about 10 years ago, got so bad I could barely walk. Went to the hospital told to go home and get some sleep and rest and I would feel better. Next morning a specialist called me from the hospital told me to get in and have another x ray asap he thought it was a blood clot in my lung and that it would kill me if I didn't get it look after right away. I was peaking. Went back had an x-ray that circles your entire chest and they told me everything was fine and that I had an infection in my lung and they gave my antibiotics and it cleared up in two days.

I am sure that you will be fine, I know how I got it. It was this kind of weather, smog alert, heat alert and running in that kind of weather. So if you were working in this weather you might have something similar. Keep us update date and take it easy.

 

Rob C

[splashhopper]

i have been xrayed numerous times for my lungs.... I am very susceptible to pneumonia

 

the ONLY advice i can give you is this:

 

Let the DOCTOR'S do the research and YOU do the fishing.... if they wanted u in earlier, they would have called your internet provider and cut off your "research tool"

[rickster]

if they wanted u in earlier, they would have called your internet provider and cut off your "research tool"

 

 

lol...i should have known better...you always get the worst results when you google medical symptoms

 

thanks for the replys fellas

 

its will be twelve years this nov that my oldest bro passed away from prostrate cancer

the docs mis-diagnosed his symptoms in apr saying he had arthritis in his legs...nov he was gone

so i am a little more stressed about this than i probably should be

[Dutchy]

you always get the worst results when you google medical symptoms

 

Never ever google symptoms other than for a joke. I have been feeling really lethargic and been sleeping for stupid amounts of time. So I googled, eliminated things based on symptoms and it left me either having diabetes, liver failure or a brain tumor lol. I saw my doctor, they are doing blood tests and she said it could be as simple as iron deficiency (she rhymed about 15 things off the top of her head that cause lethargy). Stating the obvious, but doctors train for a really long time and most know what they are talking about. If they thought you had a problem, you would know about it.

[OhioFisherman]

An opposing view, you are your best advocate! I have Multiple Sclerosis, some doctors can be arrogant idiots. If you are not comfortable with what your doctors are telling you? ask to see a specialist! After a year and a half into my illness I knew Multiple Sclerosis was the most likely cause, it only took me another year and a half to find a doctor that would listen and order the proper tests to exclude everything else.

 

Look up the differential diagnosis for your symptoms, be objective and it my help with an answer.

 

LOL ya I had chest xrays, twice, no I didn`t have Pneumonia.

[SRT8 smoker craft]

Yes like Ohio says if your not sure or satisfied with there diagnosis get a second opinion. I have been being treated for sinusitus (recouring sinus infection) for like 10 years,even had a surgery were they removed the flap of skin that lays over the opening of the sinus cavity which did very little but did help a bit. I was still getting what I thought was sinus headaches until a different DR sent me for a sleep study turns out I have sleep apnea after a good month with my CPAP machine and only 1 headache (which is a sinus headache caused from seasonal allergies) I am sure that sleep apnea was the problem the whole time and it only took them like 10 years to figure it out I was starting to think I was nuts but I feel like a million bucks now .Hope things work out for you .

[smally21]

i have chest xrays yearly as a job requirement, and recently have experienced breathing problems and chest pain. as well as the viral and bacterial infections that could cause the problem there are acute chemical irritations that can present similar to bronchial or pnemonia like symptoms. dark spots or streaks can also be explained by pleural thickening, a hardening in the lung tissue that can be naturally occuring or caused by infection or enviroment. many xrays and visits later seems the problem was 'unknown, but you don't have any thing we can find.' let your doctors do the worrying i suppose. dont let an unknown spoil your day!

[jayess]

sounds like others already said it and you have confessed to the sin yourself, but don't try to let Google be your doctor. it only brings about more-often-than-not needless worrying.

 

Just worry about your next fishing trip

[Dutchy]

sounds like others already said it and you have confessed to the sin yourself, but don't try to let Google be your doctor. it only brings about more-often-than-not needless worrying.

 

Just worry about your next fishing trip

 

Thats what I meant, its not good for diagnosis. If you have a certain condition, yes it can defo help get info on alternate strategies or treatments docs won't tell you about. My friend got a cancer treatment for his wife because he researched it. BUT don't try to diagnose yourself with google or webMD.

[Dozer]

GET A SECOND OPINION!!!!

[aplumma]

GET A SECOND OPINION!!!!

 

Wait for the first diagnosis before you get a second one. If you knew the answer then you would not have gone to the doctors office so let them do their job. I am sure Dozer meant diagnosis because opinions are like every ones got one and they don't rely on facts just on what they feel is the truth.

 

 

Art

[PikeMolester]

not necessarily cancer. I've had bronchitis 9 times and pneumonia 2 times. Severe pneumonia is enough fro certain "streaks" on my xrays

[Dutch]

Are you a smoker?

[rickster]

Are you a smoker?

 

 

never even tried a puff in my life

 

thanks for the replies all

supposed to hear from the radiologist sometime tomorrow

just wish they hadn't told me anything until the radiologist had a look

would have saved me a stressful day and night

 

Rick

Edited July 9, 2010 by rickster

[ccmtcanada]

Rickster...I know the feeling. I had a melanotic "lesion" in my eye a number of years back, coupled with fatigue, headaches and pressure behind the eye in question. Had to wait 4 weeks to get an appointment to a specialist, 4 weeks to have it removed and another 4 before I got the all clear.

 

I know it's hard to stay positive....just do the best you can!

[bigbuck]

Hang in there and stay positive. The unknown is the worst part. Chances are it is nothing. If it is something, put one foot in front of the other and keep on trucking. That's all we can do in our lives. Have some fun and maybe have a positive impact on those around us.

Good Luck!

[fisher]

I have some personal experience in lung Xrays.

 

In December 2009, my 6 year old had his first of 2 bouts of back to back pneumonia which were only 2 months apart (second was in February 2010). Each time in separate lungs. It got so bad that one day his fever hit 104.9 F on the thermometer. Luckily with medication it went down quickly but would come back after a few hours.

 

Anyway, we brought him to the Emergency department at Sick Kids in Toronto for the first and second bouts. After the second time, the doctors there were concerned since it is rare to have back to back pneumonia. They ordered a bunch of tests to rule out anything more serious that would explain the back to back pneumonia - like Cystic Fibrosis, Terburculosis, etc..They ran Xrays, pulmunary function tests - ie. breathing tests, TB prick test, etc...

 

Each time he had an Xray done (I think he had 4 in the 6 months or so), I got copies of the film on Disc and also the reports - I took them to get a Radiologist friend of the family to review to ensure the same conclusions. Anyway, the first and second time he had pneumonia, there was a nodule (looked like a bubble) that you could clearly see in the upper parts of the lung and also some streaking. I learned that Pneumonia can show up as many forms in an Xray and apparently will usually show as a large area of white in the Xray where the lungs are, but sometimes they can be streaks or bubble-like areas as with my son .

 

After a very nervous 6 months between tests and follow ups they cleared him and concluded the 2 bouts of Pneumonia were just bad luck. Interestingly, in April 2010 when he had one of his last checkups, clearly after he had fought off his pneumonia since he no longer had a cough or fever, he had a bit of a runny nose - which as luck would have it, just started that day. It was the start of a cold. Well, the Xray was reviewed by the doctor the same day we took it and we were given the all clear. However, despoite getting an all clear from the doctor, we got a call the next day to say the radiologist noticed there were these very small streaks and that a retest in a month would be needed to "just be sure". (This had happened a couple of months earlier, where the doctor said it was clear only to get a followup call the next day after the radiologist reviewed the Xray,)

 

Anyway, after a final xray a month later, he was all clear and has been since.

 

A few things I learned from this experience are:

 

The doctors reading the Xrays are not trained in reading them and that you should aways wait for the radiologist report. A couple of times we went for a followup, we were told that he was fine by the doctor only to get a call back the next day.

 

There can be many things that cause streaks in the Xray - it could be pneumonia, it could be a regular cold. But given that radiologists are trained to spot the differences, I would trust them. But in the end, make sure you followup until the Xray shows the issue has resolved and that the Radiologist has made that determination - not your doctor.