Worried sick about my mum, persistent cough

[Lorn]

Hi everyone,
Im so worried about my mum. She has had this persistent cough for over 20 years she has had every test under the sun, numerous medicines and inhalers but nothin ever helps. For about 6 weeks now though its has gotten worse and she just cant seem to get rid of it, she has also had a course of antibiotics it seemed to ease for a while but then started up again. Im terrified its lung cancer :-(. She had a chest x-ray about 3 weeks ago which came back clear but I stupidly googled and it said that an x-ray doesnt always show cancer. She also went for pulmonary breathing tests on tuesday and the nurse said there is an obstruction there she has sent the results off to her doctor where she will decide wot to do the nurse said she may give her an inhaler. I have got myself in a right state iv had to cry off work with an upset stomach but I just cant face goin in with this worry I have been crying at home all week I feel like im having a breakdown :-(

Please can anyone help me?

[Lorn]

Please please please can anyone offer any advice im going out of my mimd with worry :-(

[Justinf]

For the time that your mum has been coughing and the x-rays she has had, you can pretty much rule out lung cancer. X-rays supposedly don't pick up tumours larger than 1cm, but if your mum has been coughing a lot, then it would indicate fiarly advanced lung cancer which would show on an x-ray.
i think you can stop worrying about your mum having lung cancer.

[Kerry B]

Oh Lorn, please try and calm yourself down, If you Mum has had a Chest Xray and its clear then you need to keep thinking that if there was anything serious wrong it would of shown on the Xray. There is a lot a bugs going around at the moment. I can understand how you must be feeling but please try to think positive as you are going to make yourself ill x

[Lorn]

The dr called my mum today and said they now want her to have a spirometry tests, does this mean they are looking for lung cancer??

I can't get it out of my head that im going to lose her :-(

[simi]

My mum had lung cancer it showed up on the x-ray and she had a very mild cough hope this helps

[Tessar]

hello Lorn; i'm sorry to hear That your mum's got this persistent cough. I worked with a boss once who had that. I remember asking him ages ago if it bothered him (mainly as I knew if it was me, I'd be worried). Well he said "no, because I've had it checked out.... X-rays, the lot. They tell me I'm fine". He seemed quite relaxed about it & years later is ok.
I do understand why you'd be worried, that's only natural & it's obvious how much your mum means to you which is really lovely. Although there is always a tendency to fear the worst, sometimes people do have long lasting symptoms of this nature that from time to time get investigated in more detail. It's really positive. That your mum's talking care of herself & agreeing to have tests done. You can take a lot of comfort from that because many people wouldn't go.
It's best not to try & work out what the doctors are looking for because at the moment they will be doing routine checks. Don't spend too much time going into detail about it right now. I don't know the details of your relationship with your mum, but maybe meanwhile you might have a moment here & there to do a few kind things for your mum. They don't have to be time consuming. Sometimes it's little gestures people make that can be very rewarding. Also as it says below, look after yourself too.

[Lorn]

My mum had another chest x-ray last week as she went to the hospital with breast pain, she also had a mammogram and both came back clear. It has been about 5-6 weeks since her last x-ray do you think if anything nasty was growing it would show up on this recent one?

The doctor thinks the breast pain may be due to her Rheumatoid Arthritis but wants her to go for a bone scan on Monday just as a precaution because of her cancer history. She has her spirometry test in about 2 weeks im just hoping everything is ok with that.

I have recently been reading about RA and the medication she is on; Methotrexate and it says both can cause COPD and pulmonary fibrosis, does anyone have any experience of this?

Thanks again to everyone!! x

[Tessar]

Hey Lorn, I don't have experience of those conditions but it does sound like your mum is being very well looked after. Also it's good that two things came back clear. It must be a testing time for you but hopefully soon they will come to a diagnosis, that is ... If there is one to be made (as sometimes people do present with symptoms that just happen or they come and go). But I am pleased your mum is being looked father well..... Not least because she has you thinking of her as well. That must be reassuring for her.

[Lorn]

I keep trying to focus on the fact that both x-rays came back clear and she has regular blood tests for her RA which seem to be ok but then I keep hearing that x-rays dont pick up lung cancer and im terrified something has been missed, is this true?

[Lorn]

My mum had her Spirometry tests today and the nurse said she is still not sure what the problem is but there is definately an obstruction there.

She said its defo not asthma because the inhaler only showed an improvement of 13% and it should be over 20%, she said she doesnt think its COPD either, she said the next step now will probably be a CT scan. Surely this means she suspects lung cancer?

Im terrified please help:weep:

[Lorn]

Anyone please?? X