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View Full Version : No one seems to know what's wrong - cancer?



Worriedinohio
14-07-13, 12:01
I've been sick since the end of April now with a slew of symptoms and concerns and haven't yet found any answers.


End of April - I caught something while teaching in a school and started developing a cough. The cough was one of those wet, mucous coughs. I thought nothing of it, but it developed into a nonstop cough that would not go away. I also had to blow my noise every 30 seconds, a fever, and felt run down. At the start of May, I went into the doctor on an unrelated matter and got a nasal spray for the above illness. It made me dizzy, but did not cure me. A few weeks later, I went back to the doctor and was given an antibiotic, which I took and seemed to do nothing at all. Two days after this, while playing softball (and still feeling sick), my left arm felt as though it was dead and I could not lift it. I did not injure it in anyway though. Later that night I developed a sharp chest pain in my left side, right around my left nipple. But I continued on until June, when I again went back to the doctor and he did some blood work because he thought it was an Autoimmune problem or pleurisy. He gave me a steroid for inflammation to help with the pleurisy. A few days later the results came back normal, with white blood cells being normal. He ordered a chest x-ray, which was also normal. I was still having the left side chest pain. A week later, the doctor tells me it is not pleurisy, not an infection, and he has no idea what it is. He refers me to a sports medicine doctor because he feels it is muscle related. I then start having some blurry vision after softball. I put a cold washcloth on it and lay down. I woke up later with even worse blurriness, a severe migraine on my right side, and felt like throwing up. I also felt mentally foggy. The migraine pain did not go away until early the next day. Throughout June, the left chest pain continued, as did being mentally foggy every single day, and now my upper left chest (different spot than chest pain) begins vibrating every time I cough.

July - I see the sports medicine doctor and he says it may be a displaced rib and doesn't seem concerned about the nonstop fogginess. I head back to my original doctor who adjusts me and tells me much of my body is out of alignment. He says if it was the rib, it should be cleared up in a week. He gives me hypertension medicine for my fogginess to help reset my blood vessels in my head (should be gone in a week). And he tells me he is not concerned about the chest vibrations because it has only been three weeks, the chest x-ray was normal, and I've never had this before. He suggested it might be a collapsed bronchial and that he was 0% worried that it might develop into something else. He said it may also be allergies. I've also since developed a feeling of having hot cheeks (or flushed), even though they have not been red and look normal to anyone else.

I'm currently on a wait and see plan and so far nothing has changed. I still have left chest pain that will not go away and is worse when I am laying and sit up or bend over. I have vibrations in my left upper chest near the throat, which does that every time I cough. My left chest also feels like I am wheezing or I can hear every little thing in that lung, while the right has no problems and sounds clear. I have had tightness in the left chest too. The flushed/hot feelings on the cheeks won't go away, nor the nonstop fogginess that resulted after that migraine.

Overall, considering the length of time I've been sick with symptoms, all the doctors appointments, and the nagging pain and worry, I've had it. I don't know what to do and have been reading online about every thing I've been "diagnosed" with and again and again my search leads me to lung cancer, since nothing else is working.

My thoughts are, if the x-ray was clear then it either did not show or it is not lung related and if the blood work was normal, then I have no infection (can cancer do this?). Leaving me to wonder, what is going on? I feel as all of these symptoms are huge red flags and yet no one can figure out how to get rid of them.

Help?

joelhall
14-07-13, 13:44
LEft sided submammary pain is not related to the heart, and the most common cause is stress and anxiety. As for your doctor - considering you suffered with an obvious viral infection, I have no idea why they would prescribe antibiotics, unless it was prophylaxis treatment, which many doctors no longer do to reduce risk of antibiotic resistance.
As for cancer - very unlikely given normal bloods, clear CXR and a lack of symptoms which indicate it. Your symptoms sound like mucus, so it may be allergy/hayfever. Lung cancer wouldn't hide an infection of course - it would increase the chances of opportunistic infection, and many patients present with recurrent bacterial infections.
Although it sounds like you can hear everything in the lung, that is in fact coming from the bronchus - breath sounds will have to be listened to with a stethoscope at certain locations on the chest. Plauritic rub, rales, etc do not sound like what you're experiencing.

Worriedinohio
14-07-13, 23:59
Thanks for the input.

I went to the store and picked up some Claritin to try and see if it helps. I'm skeptical it will solve the left chest pain, but hopeful it might help the upper left vibrations and fogginess (though I've never had allergies do anything to me before).

He did listen to my chest finally on the last visit and concluded after one listen that it was a collapsed bronchial. He listened a bit more and said it was either that or allergies, but he was not sure.

I'm not too convinced the left chest pain is stress/anxiety, because it has been there forever and is a deep feeling (like I was stabbed) and still wonder if something happened that day at softball, but am unsure. I'd be more likely to guess it was something that needed attention, rather than stress.

cattia
15-07-13, 07:02
To be honest it sounds like a combination of things. If you've been coughing a lot you could have damaged some rib muscles and maybe playing softball that day just pulled or twisted something in the wrong direction. This happened to me recently. I had a bad cough for weeks and pulled some rib muscles then I just happened to twist the wrong way when I was doing the hovering of all things and got really sharp chest pain in that area. I still have it now when I am in certain positions and it was weeks ago. The foggy head thing sounds more like anxiety. If you've been worrying about this for a while then it could easily be that, and possibly you also have related muscle tension which caused the migraine. Sometimes these things start with just one issue and more and more things seem to build up as a result of that. It might be a good idea to find an acupuncturist who could give you some treatment to get you in balance again, I have always found that really helpful.

Worriedinohio
15-07-13, 08:04
I appreciate the feedback and different perspectives. I took some Claritin maybe 30 mins ago, so hopefully that will help (or at least not hurt things). I've had the hot feeling cheeks (to me) nonstop for the last two days as well.

I thought maybe I pulled the muscles or rib during softball because my arm felt dead, worse than it ever has, but that was back in May and it is July now. I would have thought it would have healed by now. It's hard not to worry about all of this when new symptoms continue to popup randomly. Are they related? Is it a new problem? Or is it something simple or everyday? The worry begins to set in when all this occurs, fearing the worst.


The foggy head thing sounds more like anxiety. If you've been worrying about this for a while then it could easily be that, and possibly you also have related muscle tension which caused the migraine.

I've been worrying, but the fogginess seems to occur at all times, even when I am not worrying. It's come after playing softball in the hot sun, after waking up, on the computer, etc.

Worriedinohio
16-07-13, 06:23
Well, five days into my week (where I should be fixed), I'm still having the same symptoms. The adjustment did not fix my "rib", the collapsed bronchial did not fix, and the fogginess did not go away from the hypertension medicine he gave me. The cheek burning is getting out of hand too. It comes and goes randomly, but a lot at night recently.

It's hard not to think the doctors are missing something when symptoms continue on for months without being cured.

Worriedinohio
17-07-13, 12:39
I've had nonstop numb cheeks for 2 days now. Do I have nerve damage?

Edit: Referred to a Neurologist now due to the nonstop numbness in my cheeks and pain, etc. in my head.

When will it end? :-(

Worriedinohio
18-07-13, 18:47
Considering they have now referred me to a neurologist, I'm not sure this is anxiety, but something serious. The frustrating part is the appointment is 3 months out and my insurance runs out in a month. I'm beginning to think it is head related though, as the pain in it and numbness in my cheeks has escalated recently.

It feels rather hopeless.

Worriedinohio
24-07-13, 18:56
I went to another PCP today and didn't like her. She seemed to not care about my symptoms at all, worse than the other. She did order 4 MRI's though on my brain and down the spine. She piggy backed on my diagnosis of the medicine, MS, or an auto-immune disorder that failed to show in the old blood work.

She thought the medicine was lower on the list.

I'm becoming more and more concerned with my ankles. They are vibrating nonstop now and have been for 2-3 days. It went from never to sometimes, to every 30 seconds, to nonstop.

I've given up hope of curing anything to be honest.