Chest x ray then ct scan for few days later

[thebadhiccups]

My Dad is due a ct scan tomorrow after having a chest x ray result on Friday. He was a smoker for a long time, but gave up about 5yrs ago. Am very concerned at the speed with which the ct scan has been ordered.
Is there anyone who could advise? Is this routine or does it indicate something worse?

hiccups it does sound like something has been seen on the xray that requires more evaluation. It is a bit faster than usual. I hope everything turns out to be ok

We request an awful lot of investigations to look in more detail at something that popped up on a routine test - a lot of ‘nodules’ and ‘lesions’ and ‘cysts’ esp in lungs and livers and kidneys. An awful lot of the time they are very unexciting, but we have to organise the follow up test to characterise them on the basis that it could be something nasty. So the haste just means they need to rule it in or out as a nasty on a timescale that would be acceptable if it turned out to be nasty. Without knowing more no one can give you probabilities but most incidental findings in someone otherwise well are nothing much. Partly depends on what triggered the chest X-ray. You can’t really second guess this though. Do you know how and when he will get the scan report explained to him?

Thank you both

He has been breathless for some time and possibly a little depressed. He visited the gp in the first instance on the insistence of my mum and they did bloods and chest x-ray to rule out anything physical...

The bloods are apparently going to need to be done again? And then this ct scan was ordered.

He will see gp again on Friday, but no guarantee the results will be available by then.

Hiccups how are things?

@vulgarwheat nothing as yet. Due to see the gp tomorrow, but this was booked before the ct scan ordered, so I doubt we'll hear anything. Thanks for asking 😊

Hope everything went ok today and you have a timescale for results

Hope it is all ok. Just to say my mum- heavy smoker for years and newly diagnosed with breast cancer- had a chest xray and we got a phone call saying she needed a CT scan and it was 4 days later. They had seen something on the xray. We had a terrible few days and the results were nothing to worry about.
She also had breathlessness which was later diagnosed as COPD. She lived another 10 happy years after her mastectomy with no further treatment and died of very old age.
I hope your dad has a good outcome.