Hi all:) I have an elevating CEA level and am a non-smoker (normal values 0-2.5 and mine have gone from 5 to 11) and now shortness of breath, wheezing, rales and a daily persistent cough.
My Mom died of lung cancer (mets to bone and then brain) and both of my parents smoked. (I'm 45)
Several years ago they found 2 densities at the base of my right lung (no breathing symptoms).
I've had the above symptoms for over 9 weeks.
Recent CT scan showed lobulated nodulated densities not only in the right lower lobe (11 mm), but now also in the right upper lobe and in the other lung (left lower lobe). Repeat CT scan confirmed these new densities.
Here is the ironic part.....lung cancer needs to be discovered early from all accounts, but I'm being told the new densities are too small (2 to 3 or 5mm) to be visualized by PET scan and are too small to biopsy, so we have to wait for a repeat CT scan in 3 months.
Given my mother's death from lung cancer and the fact that I'm symptomatic, I am concerned that this is an early lung CA, but want to know if anyone else has gone down this road & have hints about what I should do next.
Also of note....during these 9 weeks of having breathing problems, I've also had off & on hip pain. When I asked the radiologist about this, he said there was a mild uptake of the PET scan medium, but he feels it's a bursitis. The radiologist said that since there has not been major growth of the first densities that he would consider these benign.
I want to find the middle road of being diligent, but not obsessive.
I'm concerned that these densities (however small) are now in another area of one lung and also in the other lung. Any thoughts, hints, sharing of similar experiences would be so greatly appreciated.
I wish all of you the absolute very best!!!
Karyn