Lung Cancer health anxiety sufferer please help me

[she1973]

I'm a 36 yr old mum of 2 lovely boys (smoker) always had some form of health anxiety and i always think the worst and dont belive the dr's at all when they tell me everything is normal!!!
This lung cancer worry has all started about a month ago when i started with this awful tickly throat and this has gradually got worse.. i'm not coughing up any phlem just a constant tickly throat which drives me to coughing had a chest x-ray done just over a month ago which was clear numerous trips to the Dr's surgery to which he checks my lungs etc everytime and he says they are crystal clear!!!!!
Help please i'm sooo scared
Sheila

[Wee-Mee]

Did they give you any tablets or anything?

I get that tickly cough thing and no phlegm and have did for abotu 3 years and I usually have to get a dose of steroid tablets to "cool down" my lungs cos they get inflammed. I have Asthma but apparntly it can be brought on by stress or things! If your chest xray was clear..you don't have cancer..if they suspected,they would have did further tests.

My dad is a smoker and has asthma and emphysema(still smokes!:( ) and he was coughing up all sorts of gunk and had chest pain and he got an xray..and something showed up and they investigated and thanlfully all was clear,he had pleuritis,got some tablets and was ok.

I know what it is like to worry though. I think the mroe you focus on something the worse it becomes but we can't help it can we!?



xxxxxxxx

[she1973]

hi weemee thank you for the reply no the dr's haven't given me any tabs appart from the course of antibiotics that did nothing and a spray for me to put up my nose but that doesn't work either also tabs incase its acid stomach that does nothing so i think it's the big c
just driving myself insane with worry if it's not one thing its another vicious circle

[Cell block H fan]

Sympathise with you Sheila! I'm similar age to you (well, 38) 2 teenage kids, smoker. And this is probably one of my worst fears ever. I have my patches now & plan to start the stopping smoking thing on monday. Not looking forward to it, but I'm too scared not to stop now really.
The fact your chest x rays are clear are a reassuring thing! I wouldn't even be brave enough to go for that.
All I will say is I dated a GP going back when I was 32 & I asked him what the youngest person was that had lung cancer, & he said at their surgery it was 40. I know thats not a big comfort, to me it was back then because I was early 30's! But at your age, its highly unlikely anyway! But if I was in your shoes, I would be seeing that chest xray as a fresh start & stopping smoking, knowing that I was in the clear & as long as I stopped smoking now, would probably stay that way xxx Oh & as for the tickly cough, I live with one all the time, I just put it down to the smokes to be honest x

[trolleydolly]

my mum had lung cancer last year she was really poorly before she was diagnosed and it would show on an x ray im worried to death about getting it as well but yet i still smoke i wouldnt dare go for an x ray either
ive got to give up the fags as im 42 now and feel its time for them to go

[she1973]

well i have started on the patches today not going tooo well at all health anxiety through the roof panic attacks back with a vengence why oh why am i like this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[westofengland]

Use this as an opportunity and reason to stop smoking! Smoking is a massive cause of cancer so if you are really worried about cancer, you'll stop. We cannot control our health or whether we get ill, but we can control stuff like smoking - that's the way I think about it
And I'm no angel, I have been smoking on and off for a while too!
It's not just lung cancer and oral cancer it causes, there's heart disease - the UK's biggest kiler

[trolleydolly]

hi dont be to hard on yourself giving up smoking is hard enough itself
but its even worse when you have anxiety
at least you are having a go
good luck
debby