Urgent chest X-ray tonight

[thesearetherichesofthepoor]

I'm too in my own head so need some sensible people to handhold please.

Since February I've had bouts of waking up coughing and struggling to breathe. It then goes away a bit but has returned this week with a vengeance and I ended up struggling with breathing, coughing and wheezing last night for hours before I fell asleep. I tried anti histamines and ibuprofen but nothing helped.

Other things are a really itchy neck/collarbone, coughing up frothy clear mucus, fatigue and swelling under my collarbone that the dr last week said was costochondritis (sp) but isn't going down with anti inflammatories.

Phoned my dr earlier to ask for an inhaler because I just couldn't catch my breath at all this morning and she's referred me to an urgent chest X-ray that's happening tonight.

The speed of it all has thrown me completely and im terrified. Im 33 but a smoker (this has kicked me up the ass about quitting)!

Just need a handhold or anyone who's had similar to prepare me for the X-ray. Please.

Your GP is going the right thing. You’re very young, but nobody is going to stop you worrying about the dreaded C. Hopefully the X-ray will make you feel better.

i’ve had a chest X-ray before and it’s really simple, hopefully you’ll get the results quickly (I had to wait two weeks but it wasn’t an urgent one)

Thank you. Hoping the results don't take too long to come back

Hi,
I'm a radiographer and the fact that you are short of breath and coughing clinically indicates for your Dr that they have to request a chest X-ray for you. A lot of the time they are completely normal but it's just protocol.

Also, at your age they're not likely to be thinking malignancy. It could be anything from a bit of air in your lungs (pneumothorax), fluid in your lungs (pleural effusion) or infective changes. But most of the time it's absolutely nothing so please try not to worry.

Definitely quit smoking though! 😉

Best of luck. Hopefully it'll be nothing serious and give you the impetus to stop smoking.