Medical Question, Please, Only serious answers......?

Question

I have been to the doctors 4 times in the past 2 weeks and i'v had 2 hospital trips for what the doctors think (but arent completely sure) is whooping cough. Also.... they thought i had pnuemonia, but they took an X-Ray and the X-Ray said that there was no more fluid in my lungs and that there was a "spot" or "noduel".... I'm only 15, I have never smoked and i've never had any type of surgery on my lungs or around that area..... What could this "spot" or "noduel" be ?????.......... Are there any people who have had this happen to them or any doctors/nurses that can help me w/ a serious answer ?

Answer 1

If the Doctors think you have whooping cough they can take a blood sample off you and have it sent to a lab to be tested. You don't say if you have a productive cough, I mean producing sputum/phlegm. If you are your Doctor can also take a sample of this off to send for testing. You should really speak to your Doctor as he know your whole medical history and will have more of an idea of what your x -ray results mean. The Doctor who took the x-ray should really have sat down with you and explained it to you. The fact that they haven't showed much interest suggest that it isn't anything to worry about.

I do know that spot/nodules on the lungs can be caused by various things, infection, inflammation and tumours. The fact that your so young and do not smoke make me thing that it is possibly a granuloma. This is can happen after an infection and is slight scarring of your lungs. You can get granulomas in any area of your body not just your lungs. Lots of people have these and they aren't anything to worry about.

Give your Doctor a call and explain to his how this is making you worried and ask him to explain it to you. It will put you mind at ease.

Answer 2

From your query I feel you seem to be concerned about the nodule rather than the whooping cough diagnosed by your doctor.Whooping cough is not dangerous in adults and if medical help is taken....which you have,so dont worry on that count.
Regarding the nodule your doctor saw on the Xray..I dont think you need to be worried because most of the so called 'growths' in the lungs are not malignant and are referred to as adenomas.
Ideally your doctor needs to confirm if this nodule is not a part of the resolving pneumonia(it can resolve with similar radiological picture),or if it is not any lung abscess which can complicate pneumonia,both of which are not life threatening and easily treatable.
If these are ruled out he would be monitoring the nodule by a repeat Xray in a month's time or so to see if it is growing in size(rather doubling in size).If not,or if it is regressing there is no cause for concern.Considering your young age,this is what is more likely to occur.
If in the event of the nodule growing in subsequent X rays then he would require you to have further tests like a CT scan of chest and bronchoscopy(viewing the bronchus via a fibreoptic camera),etc.
Have you had any Xrays in your life previously?It would be advisable to check for the nodule in those and if present in your earlier Xrays and it is not increasing in size(doubling in size),then most probably you have an adenoma which doesnt need to be addressed unless one is getting symptomatic because of it.
Remember one thing....a nodule in a chest Xray most commonly could be infective,post infective,a calcified lymph node or an adenoma and very rarely a malignant process considering your age.
So relax...your doctor knows best!

Answer 3

I am not a dr or nurse however I am a respiratory therapist with extensive knowledge about the lungs.
Depending on teh area of the "nodule" it could be many different things including tb.
There are many pathologies besides lung ca that make nodules grow..like fungal infections, fibrosis (are you in any danger from your work enviroment?), tb is a big possibility.

I would see a pulmonologist, and have them biopsy it to find out exactly what the nodule is.

Not to scare you but if it is lung ca by the time a nodule is big enough to be on an xray, chances are higher that its already spread all over.

Answer 4

The only real way you will know what it is, is if you have a biopsy done. When I became ill, I was diagnosed with pneumonia but the cough never went away. The doctor did a cat scan then and found my nodules. His advice was to wait three months and have another one to see if it had grown. Well, after three months, I had another one, it hadn't grown on the left lung, but now there was one on the right lung much larger. Still wanting to wait another 6 weeks and do another, I couldn't handle it anymore. I wanted to know what was invading my body. I went to see a pulmonologist (lung specialist). Immediately, he did what is called a Pet Scan, similar to a cat scan but you are injected with radioactive glucose. If cancer is present, it will illuminate because cancer feeds off of glucose. It glowed, so I was scheduled for biopsies. The biopsies proved I did not have cancer, but I was diagnosed with a condition called sarcoidosis and also a condition called histoplasmosis. Both of these conditions are caused by inhaling microscopic spores of fungus. Things found in the everyday environment. As far as TB, doing a simple skin test does not always indicate that you have the disease. There are millions of people who show positive when given the skin test but never actually have the disease. Good luck.

Answer 5

FIrst things first, just try to stay calm about the situation. A supposed "nodule" on your lung doesn't necessarily mean that you have cancer or anything like that. It could be a whole slough of things from an infection to nothing at all. I'm sure that your doctor has scheduled more tests to determine what the nodule is. Trust in his ability to fix the problem, and do your best at keeping a positive attitude.

Answer 6

actually my brother-in-law got crabs years ago when he was working on a nasty rent house. he and the rest of the crew sat down on the carpet to eat lunch, they were all in shorts because it was summer and hot and if i am not mistaken everyone of them took crabs home to their wives/girlfriends. So there is a very real possibility that your husband is not cheating, but got them from a toilet, or some other not so obvious place. As for the poster who stated that public toilets are clean...when was the last time you HAD to use a gas station toilet? Office toilets are cleaned once a day, generally at night, do you really think that out of 5 stalls in a bathroom, you are the only man in a building to have to actually SIT on it during the course of a day? There are just too many possibilities of where the crabs came from being unfaithful is just one of them. Cut him a break this time. If it happens again, then, were I you I would begin to remove dearly loved body parts of his.

Answer 7

It also may be something like, when I lived in AZ there was a prevalent illness called Valley Fever that most everyone who lived there had at one time or another...it was a fungus in the dirt. It mainly felt like a flu, so most people (including myself) didn't even realize we had it....Sometime after I got chest x-rays and they found nodules and that is what they determined them to come from.....
Point is don't panic....or stress, the odds are it really is nothing serious...
Good Luck.

Answer 8

I'm not going to do this on this forum but if you send me your email address I will tell you my story.

The problem is, it is MY story and may not correspond to you at all. I will say, if you live in the central valley of California or anywhere in the deserts of the Southwestern USA, or if you have ever lived there you probably want to hear what I have to say.

Finally, let me echo the first answer. Don't panic, at least not yet. Based on your question I will say, you have no idea how little information you actually have about this.

At your disposal.

Answer 9

Nodule means small node or swelling. Nodules are normally benign and often painless, although they can affect the functioning of the organ.
No further comments.

Answer 10

Primary complex tuberculosis or Histoplasmosis. You need a TB skin test and therapy if positive.