Issues with throat, scared of lung cancer etc.

[Gune]

Hello everyone.

I am a 25 year old male who quit smoking 9 months ago after having smoked ~12-13 cigarettes a day for 10 years.

In the beginning I had the colorful mucus but that has mostly cleared up.
I do however have the odd streak of blood in my mucus in the morning. It's in the back of my throat and I have to kind of "clear my throat" to make it come up.

It only ever happens in the morning and only once every 2 weeks or so.
I have no other symptoms and no cough.

I will be calling a doctor tomorrow to get a time but I am of course worried about lung cancer and other terminal decease like that.

Any ideas what it might be? What's the risk of it being something terminal like say lung cancer? I might be overreacting but I would like an outside opinion.

Thanks everyone.

[Fishmanpa]

Congrats on quitting! You've done yourself a huge favor. What you're describing in no way, shape or form sounds sinister. The benefits of quitting multiply the longer you have quit. At this point, your lungs are beginning to grow cilia again! Here's a recovery timetable (http://whyquit.com/whyquit/A_Benefits_Time_Table.html) to keep you motivated.

Positive thoughts

[Gune]

Congrats on quitting! You've done yourself a huge favor. What you're describing in no way, shape or form sounds sinister. The benefits of quitting multiply the longer you have quit. At this point, your lungs are beginning to grow cilia again! Here's a link to keep you motivated.

Positive thoughts

Thanks for the kind words. Nice to hear. I called a nurse today and she said I should get it checked out, which is what prompted my worry. The fact that it has been going on and off for several months I feel is a source of concern as well.

Hopefully I am just overreacting though.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Terminal lung cancer is aggressive. My GF's mum has this and within a month of the symptoms appearing, she was in hospital because her breathing was poor. Within 2 months she was struggling to climb a flight of stairs more than once a day.

If you are coughing a lot of coughing hard, it could be that. If you are clearing your throat a lot or hard, it could be that too. These can easily cause a minor blood vessel to rupture or irritate & inflame a nodule of some kind. My brother always did this due to a problem with his nose from an earlier injury & surgery on it that later failed and eventually a nodule became inflamed.

Well done on quitting. It's so worth it.

[Gune]

Terminal lung cancer is aggressive. My GF's mum has this and within a month of the symptoms appearing, she was in hospital because her breathing was poor. Within 2 months she was struggling to climb a flight of stairs more than once a day.

If you are coughing a lot of coughing hard, it could be that. If you are clearing your throat a lot or hard, it could be that too. These can easily cause a minor blood vessel to rupture or irritate & inflame a nodule of some kind. My brother always did this due to a problem with his nose from an earlier injury & surgery on it that later failed and eventually a nodule became inflamed.

Well done on quitting. It's so worth it.

I see. That may be it then, I'll ask the doctor. It just kind of sucks that when I finally get over the anxiety, a couple of days later I once again get the small streak of blood. It's so far in between that I don't really think its lung cancer either, but it's hard to tell yourself that when seeing the blood streak.