Put on 2 weeks pathway after accidental finding

[Changingjustforthisone]

Hi,
need to talk to someone but can’t face anyone out of my immediate family.
Since Sunday night I had an on and off temperature with no cold/no cough, and a mild nausea and no appetite, no vomiting/no diarrhoea.
On Wednesday night I reluctantly agreed with my family to see a GP, it looked just like a viral something and I don’t like wasting NHS time.
She examined me and sent me to a same day emergency care unit for blood tests because couldn’t get what it was.
Blood tests showed an inflammation marker too high so they gave me antibiotics and sent me to an abdominal CT scan suspecting gallstones or similar.
At the scan apparently they saw something higher up so extended it.
Results: clear abdomen and a 5x5 cm totally asymptomatic mass in my lung which we would never have known about if it wasn’t for calling a scrupulous GP for a stupid viral thing that’s already gone.

early 40s, a DS7.

help

How absolutely terrifying for you OP. Your GP is a star, and all your Care Team will be too. Here to say I'm thinking of you 💐

Oh, and for a CT machine that went slightly too high for a pure accident (dr confirmed this)

Thanks ❤️

And this newly built SDCE I didn’t even know about, everyone amazing there but now I’m lost

I'm sorry to hear you're going through this OP. It must be very frightening for you. They obviously need to do more tests to determine what the mass is, hence the two week pathway as they'll want to try and rule out cancer if possible. The sooner they diagnose, the sooner they can treat. I'll keep everything crossed that it's benign, which is entirely possible if it's asymptomatic.

The wait will be agonising, so please keep posting for support if you need to.

thanks @BilboBlaggin today will be spent in practicalities like talking to my managers and collaborators etc and cancelling all the commitments of the next few weeks but the reality has already hit and don’t know how DS will react, he’s already crying every day for my FIL deceased exactly 1 year from yesterday from a brain tumour. Maybe it’s him who pushed up the machine.

Sounds like your family is having a really tough time OP. Sorry for your loss.

I like the thought that your late FIL is looking over you and he moved the machine up. Who knows, strange things happen and we don't always know the reasons.

❤️

This is an awful situation to be in- I’ve been there and I know how terrifying it is. Waiting is the absolute hardest part.
Try to keep in mind that 9/10 2w referrals are not cancers.
It sounds like you have good medical professionals taking care of you.
lean on family and friends for support, and be kind to yourself.
Wishing you speedy results and a positive outcome.

I'm a total stranger but I'm sending you good wishes and hoping that it's something easily treatable and benign.🤞

First of all, I would try not to panic. I have cancer and when I had my scans (I’ve had a lot of them), they were always very honest that the scans could pick up something unexpected and new that would be totally unrelated to the cancer we already knew about. Thankfully, so far, they haven’t found any surprises. My cancer has spread, but we already knew that before the scans (it was in a lymph node so very obvious).

It’s quite possible it’s nothing. If it is something, it’s great you’ve caught it now before it’s even causing you any issues and it can be treated. I seriously thought I was going to die. I started planning all the things I needed to do with my dc before I did. But actually, while the surgeries have been big ones and a lot to recover from, it’s been okay. I will need to be on treatment for a year, but the statistics around recovery are very good for most cancers, especially if you are young and otherwise healthy. Don’t start googling. Just keep yourself busy. I did 100 mile long distance trek while waiting for my surgery to keep myself busy.

But don’t be afraid to make yourself a squeaky wheel. Call regularly and ask what the next steps are. Get the consultant’s secretary’s number and email and stay on top of them until you’re satisfied with the answers you’re getting. Hopefully it all turns out to be nothing but just a bit of a scary blip.

I got goose bumps when you said it was your FIL that pushed up the machine. I really do believe things like this happen for a reason. It is not your time.

I had a dream 6 months ago that my MIL has a problem with her ovaries. It was so real that I called and spoke with her. 3 weeks later she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. After I had spoken with her she started to google how she was feeling and she went to the docs.

yes @Sdpbody there are so many weird things in this case.

When DS asked me for the first time where FIL was, I said he was playing in the sky with my Nan (who had died a few months earlier). When I was feverish, I had a sort of weird hallucination about a particular meal that my Nan used to cook me when I was sick as a child.
And it was my FIL’s first death anniversary.

I didn’t want to call the Gp, family insisted, I called. I received the call back at a time when I was in the car with my mum, she was driving in an unfamiliar place at a big roundabout and I was keeping my phone up with the satnav on, so I thought to hang up, she told me “answer, I go round and read signs” so I did and got the appointment one hour later.

The GP was a great one who didn’t send me home with paracetamol.

The scan machine went higher up than it was supposed to.

The ball is rolling. First appointment on Tuesday with the lung consultant. Relying on diazepam just to breathe without hyperventilating. I am scared of what the biopsy will say.

Hi! How are you doing now? @Changingjustforthisone

Thanks @Loulou29 for asking. I am so happy to be here and bring a good news, it was a misdiagnosis.

For another series of unbelievable circumstances, it turned out to be an asymptomatic (up to that point, then I had some typical signs) pneumonia by Chlamydia pneumoniae, which is apparently known to start silently. Two weeks of strong antibiotics reduced the mass by 30%. After another 40 days at home and another scan, I had only small densities and was discharged as this infection also takes a long time to go away so it was normal.

The GP didn't comment on the misdiagnosis, only referred me to mental health support. I didn't even complain and did let it go, just so happy to be alive.

@Changingjustforthisone It’s great news. Was also on cancer pathway in November and everything is good. Wishing all the best

What a relief for you OP!!!

@Loulou29 I wish you all the best too!

Absolutely amazing to hear it was all okay!

What I would say is from a psychological point of view it might not be helpful to think of this as a misdiagnosis - they saw something by chance that could have been cancer, and investigated promptly and appropriately, far better that then something is wrongly presumed benign. Unless you were told after the biopsy it was something else it wasn’t this doesn’t really sound like a misdiagnosis, just robust thorough investigation into the worst case scenario, albeit bloody bloody scary for you. I suspect this is why the GP didn’t comment and I’m so pleased they’ve referred you for support, I’ve been through something similar myself and it’s awful isn’t it! And then you have the psychological adjustment of being relatively “well” again after spending such time planning for the worst case scenario. Your GP sounds fab.

Take good care and all the best!