Lung nodule, I'm worried

[Antonio]

Hello everyone. I hope all of you is doing well. 

I got a CT scan the last month for a bowel check, and they found a 9mm nodule on my right upper lung. I am a male, 23 years old, never smoker without any other risk factors. The thing that worries me is that my nodule is solid and a bit irregular, not spiculated just the shape is not a perfect oval. 

I am really scared as my doctor said that there is a small chance that it can be LC. 

I am tryng to cope with this but the anxiety is not letting me do my everyday life.

Has someone experienced something similar? 

[GaryG]

Hi Antonio and welcome to our blog. Sorry to hear about the  9 mm nodule in your lung. It is normal to  experience   anxiety , but in your case, you need to know if you have LC first.  Lung cancer is no longer a death sentence and we have many posters on this board that beat it.  The diagnostics and medication are getting better each day.

Hopefully your doctors will get to the bottom of it and give you  plan  for a good treatment.

 best.

[Steff]

Hi Antonio,

I think everyone who has been told they have a lung nodule and it may or may not be cancerous has experienced your anxiety.  I know my mom did when she was first told of her lung nodule.  People do get lung nodules for a variety of reasons, including lung infections/pneumonia.  While size and shape can sometimes be an indicator of LC, one can never be sure whether or not a nodule is cancerous just by a CT, X-ray, or PET.  A biopsy is needed to know for sure.  Depending on the size of your nodule and if there are no other areas of concern, your doc may just put you on a wait-and-see status.  Meaning, you will have periodic scans to see if the nodule has grown or changed shape.  My mom was on the wait-and-see program for about 6 months until her nodule grew and a biopsy was ordered.  In her case, she did have lung cancer.  She also has a nodule in one of her kidneys.  We noticed it about 4 years ago.  It's not changed in size or shape, so her docs are not concerned that it is cancer, it is just something she has in her kidney.

During the wait-and-see time and while we were waiting for biopsy results, the anxiety of my mom possibly having cancer was extreme.  After we knew the answer and had a treatment plan, things got better...we knew what to expect.  The unknown is tough for most of us to handle.  Please know we are here for you during your journey.

Take care, 

Steff

[LouT]

Antonio

 As you’ve already heard, most nodules are not lung cancer.  So, please relax until your doctor completes his diagnosis work.  Focus on living and not the future you don’t know.  Soon you’ll know if there is a problem or not and, if so, what can be done to treat it.  There are many survivors here; me among them. So stay very hopeful.  
Lou

 

[BridgetO]

Hi Antonio and welcome here.  A lot of us have been through what you're going through now-- a nodule discovered by accident in an Xray or scan for something else. I had to "wait and see"  and have another scan in three months.  Mine turned out to be a stage 1  (very early) non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). I had surgery and am fine now. When you read the posts here, you may think that it can't be true that most nodules aren't cancer, since most of us report that are nodules WERE cancer. But keep in mind that most of those  who come here and whose nodules turn out not to be cancer, don't hang around. They let us know their biopsy results, we tell them ow glad we are for them, and they say goodbye.

So, hang in there, and keep us informed.  Waiting is the hardest part. Let us know how we can support you. That's what we're here fir.

Bridget O