Worried about my 21yo daughter.

[bopsie]

My 21yo daughter, nonsmoker, complained 8 weeks ago of a dry persistent cough.  It sounds like whooping cough.  She now is persistently congested after having a sinus infection 3 weeks ago.  And she has the cough and it's more frequent.  She will be going to an ENT and general practitioner next week.  I am going to insist she get imaging rather than take steroids etc.  Do you think I'm being overly dramatic?

[LouT]

Hi Bopsie, 

I don't think you are being overly dramatic.  Perhaps you can request that she get a low-dose CT Scan along with whatever other treatment she receives.  Please remember that this will likely turn out to be something other than cancer, but lung cancer has often been misdiagnosed as pneumonia or some other chest infection.  A scan can provide good information that should put your mind at ease.

Lou

[Rower Michelle]

This sounds like my story!  So no, don’t waste any time in advocating for a low dose CT scan.  I had three months of antibiotics, inhalers and steroids— 4 different doctors, 13 appointments with diagnosis such as sinus infections, allergies, whooping cough, acid reflux, fungal infection, bronchitis, atypical pneumonia, pulmonary embolism before I had the CT scan.  Everyone was shocked when the biopsy revealed a stage IV lung cancer.  It wasn’t ever considered.  
 

Unfortunately my story is shared by many.  Our thoughts and prayers are with you and the best way forward is to demand the scan.  Please keep us posted. 
 

Michelle

[Tom Galli]

Bops,

I agree strongly with Lou and Michelle. Press for a CT scan. The drama comes when attempts to treat symptoms fail and a tumor or tumors are discovered downstream. Unfortunately, many non smokers are being diagnosed with our disease these days.

Most insurance policies will not cover CT scans for those under age 55. But the cost of low dose screening is relatively low. The peace of mind is well worth the cost, my view.

Here is more information about lung cancer risk factors, early detection and lung cancer screening.

Stay the course.

Tom

[LilyMir]

As others wrote already, doctors are horrible at diagnosing lung cancer for younger patients, particularly non-smokers. My concerns and even symptoms were dismissed for years, told I have anxiety even as I sought the opinion of multiple GPs, OBGyn, Neurologist, Gastroenterologist over that period. Heck even a 1.5 cm tumour incidentally captured on a neck scan was completely ignored by radiology and robbed me from the chance of a stage 1 diagnosis (I was diagnosed 4 years later at stage 3b!).  If symptoms persist, I would push relentlessly for more investigations. The worst would be they catch anything sinister so early when chances of cure are near 100%. The best they find nothing serious and your daughter gets a proper diagnosis for her symptoms. Good luck!

[Karen_L]

You’ve gotten great feedback. The only think I would add is, has she done a Covid test? My husband sounds like what you describe and he’s upstairs feeling miserable with Covid. 
 

Karen

[Justin1970]

Hi

Definitely push for a thorough check and ct scan it's not worth missing anything, I hope everything goes well for your daughter 

Take care Justin 

[LilyMir]

3 hours ago, Karen_L said:

You’ve gotten great feedback. The only think I would add is, has she done a Covid test? My husband sounds like what you describe and he’s upstairs feeling miserable with Covid. 
 

Karen

Oh no @Karen_L, so COVID found your household after all? So sorry to hear and hope your husband recovers very soon.

[Karen_L]

@LilyMirYep. I told him he’d come home with Covid if he went on the men’s retreat. Sure enough. He’s pretty miserable. I want to know where the “bad cold” kind of Covid is that everyone else seems to have. And my fingers are double crossed that by moving to a different floor of the house, setting up three air purifiers on the floor he’s on, and communicating through Google Meets I’ll avoid it….

[LilyMir]

Gosh, that's tough, hope he gets better soon and you never catch it. COVID is certainly not a cold and symptoms vary a lot initially and later on, I know that from family members who had extremely different outcomes. Try to have an extra HEPA in the room you stay in, open windows in the house and wear N95 and glasses when you venture to other rooms. I heard many people were able to dodge household COVID with extra precautions. Please take care! 

[Justin1970]

Hi Karen 

I know it's worrying but my entire household caught covid the day i had gamma knife done we think, I had an antivirus infusion done the following day and I didnt feel to bad try not to worry about this on top of everything else you have going on 

Take care Justin x  

[Minh]

My nodule was incidentally found in 2018 through a heart scan. At the time it was about 9mm. They told me it was an infection and not to worry about it. Three years later in 2021, the nodule grew to 18mm and they biopsied it and found out it was cancer. 
 

So, when in doubt, go for CT scan. Insist to have CT scan and biopsy any nodules found. Don’t let them tell you it is infection or inflammation without verification.