Just as a warning... this is kind of a long one.
I am a 33 year old woman, and have smoked since I was sixteen.
I was having some right shoulder pain and pain under the right rib cage for about 10 months. I had been to see my reg doc about this, and was told not to worry, that maybe I just pulled a muscle and need a good massage. Then on the 20th of June I got a very high fever which lasted for 5 days before I was smart enough to take myself to the ER. Upon arrival they did blood work and a chest x ray (I had a slight dry cough) and told me I had pneumonia (I was shocked). I saw my x ray and the large white spot in my right lung so I believed them. I was put on IV meds and returned the next day for more, and then was put on 3 days worth of oral meds. At the time I asked the doctor what were my chances that this could be more than just pneumonia, and he replied "slim to none".
So needless to say I was surprised when my pcp called me the next day and said that i needed to have another x ray and maybe a CT scan. However after looking at my x ray from the hospital (I asked for copies of everything before I left) he decided to go right to a cat scan with contrast that day.
He called me back within 15 minutes of my scan being done (the radiologist called him when I was still on the table) and said I needed a biopsy. So he made me an appointment with a pumologist. I made sure that I brought all my records including my scan on disk, the radiologists report and all the ER reports.
here are the findings on the CT scan:
There is rather homogeneous consolidation/collapse/mass in the right lower lob medially, involving the superior segment of the right lower lobe and extending around the right mainstem bronchus and narrowing the superior segment of the right lower lobe bronchus. It is worrisome for a neoplasm such as bronchogenic carcinoma, small cell carcinoma, lymphoma or other metastatic disease with peripheral atelectasis. However no other lymphadenopathy is noted and the left lung is clear. There is some associated ground glass opacity in the medial segment of the right lower lobe and is probably related to volume loss.
then included under the impressions was that in addition to the above there is also a small pulmonary nodule 4 mm which is too large for a normal vessel in the location it was in.
So I went to my appointment with the pumologist. He popped my ct disk in his laptop, and after figuring out how it worked looked at the mini-movie it played for approx 30 seconds and turned around and said he wasn't worried and mentioned pneumonia. He also stated that he wasn't worried since I was so young and that I had no history of smoking and that I should wait six weeks to have another scan because he thought that everything would disappear. At this point I knew that he didn't have all my information correct so I asked him if he had read my paperwork. He hadn't until he proceeded to pull it out and read it in front of me! And at this point I also told him that I was not comfortable at all waiting six weeks to 'see'. So he unwilling made me an appointment with a thorasic surgeon, but basically hinted that it would be a waste of my time and that I was over-reacting. I live in rural New Hampshire and this is the kind of doctors we unfortunately seem to have a lot of. So now at this point I am going to Boston to Brigham Womens Hospital and praying that I find someone that doesn't dismiss me so readily.
I am shocked and scared at the same time and needed to vent.
So thank you in advance for listening/reading. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thank you.
Hope
