Angelica Schuyler
13-08-18, 20:53
I'm a lymphoma survivor with a history of chest radiation. I've been in the clear for about 20 years. I also have severe health anxiety. It was under control until my mother died last year of a combination of respiratory illnesses, including lung cancer. Now, nothing can touch it. I've been suffering for the better part of ten months.
In December, I was in a panic about pancreatic/stomach/colon cancer, so I begged for an abdominal MRI. Everything turned up clear except for a 5 mm nodule on the lower lobe of my right lung. Both my oncologist and GP said it was nothing serious, probably a side effect of past treatment, and that there was no need to monitor it and expose me to more radiation.
Last month, I had an incident at work a couple weeks ago where my chest felt heavy while talking to a colleague. The pressure and kind-of-pain felt like it was on the inside of my body and it seemed to be radiating to or from my back. My breath felt like it was "catching." I made the mistake of checking Dr. Google to see if it was a heart attack, then went to the bathroom to try deep breathing. While there, I started tingling down my head and both arms, and I felt like I was going to pass out. I stumbled out of the stall and asked a colleague for help.
Long story short, I wound up at the ER where my EKG and blood work were all fine and I was told to lay off the caffeine.
I went to my cardiologist the following week for my yearly post-cancer follow-up appointment - I was on some medications in the past that could hurt my heart muscle - and my echocardiogram and EKG looked fine, as well as my blood pressure, which was high in the ER.
But the pain and pressure in my back and chest remained, along with the feeling of mucus in the very back of my throat - not globus, almost like behind where that would be - that makes me feel like coughing. The pain is through both shoulder blades, the middle of my back, my breastbone, and my ribs. Sometimes I feel like I can't get a whole breath in, or that I'm out of breath when talking. I'm terrified that the nodule has become lung cancer, like my mom had, and I'm going to die.
I ran sobbing to my GP on Thursday. He truly believes that all of my pain is musculoskeletal and won’t consider any invasive tests unless I get worse. He said there is no use exposing me to more radiation unless there is something seriously wrong.
I asked my GP about my lung nodule and told him how scared I was that it had grown. He told me the chances of it being anything were almost nil, and that nodules 1) don’t grow that fast and 2) don’t detach or move around. He told me that, if I had cancer that caused that pain, I wouldn’t be able to breathe at all.
He said I don’t have cancer.
So why don't I believe him? Should I believe him without a scan? Can anxiety really cause these types of symptoms? Has anyone here dealt with something like this and can give me some advice? I'm so tired of panicking and waiting and wondering if I'm going to die.
In December, I was in a panic about pancreatic/stomach/colon cancer, so I begged for an abdominal MRI. Everything turned up clear except for a 5 mm nodule on the lower lobe of my right lung. Both my oncologist and GP said it was nothing serious, probably a side effect of past treatment, and that there was no need to monitor it and expose me to more radiation.
Last month, I had an incident at work a couple weeks ago where my chest felt heavy while talking to a colleague. The pressure and kind-of-pain felt like it was on the inside of my body and it seemed to be radiating to or from my back. My breath felt like it was "catching." I made the mistake of checking Dr. Google to see if it was a heart attack, then went to the bathroom to try deep breathing. While there, I started tingling down my head and both arms, and I felt like I was going to pass out. I stumbled out of the stall and asked a colleague for help.
Long story short, I wound up at the ER where my EKG and blood work were all fine and I was told to lay off the caffeine.
I went to my cardiologist the following week for my yearly post-cancer follow-up appointment - I was on some medications in the past that could hurt my heart muscle - and my echocardiogram and EKG looked fine, as well as my blood pressure, which was high in the ER.
But the pain and pressure in my back and chest remained, along with the feeling of mucus in the very back of my throat - not globus, almost like behind where that would be - that makes me feel like coughing. The pain is through both shoulder blades, the middle of my back, my breastbone, and my ribs. Sometimes I feel like I can't get a whole breath in, or that I'm out of breath when talking. I'm terrified that the nodule has become lung cancer, like my mom had, and I'm going to die.
I ran sobbing to my GP on Thursday. He truly believes that all of my pain is musculoskeletal and won’t consider any invasive tests unless I get worse. He said there is no use exposing me to more radiation unless there is something seriously wrong.
I asked my GP about my lung nodule and told him how scared I was that it had grown. He told me the chances of it being anything were almost nil, and that nodules 1) don’t grow that fast and 2) don’t detach or move around. He told me that, if I had cancer that caused that pain, I wouldn’t be able to breathe at all.
He said I don’t have cancer.
So why don't I believe him? Should I believe him without a scan? Can anxiety really cause these types of symptoms? Has anyone here dealt with something like this and can give me some advice? I'm so tired of panicking and waiting and wondering if I'm going to die.