hi, I’m completely knocked over by the last month of my life! I’m scared……
So, had been having lower rib pain and mentioned it to my GP, sent for X-ray.
hospital phoned a week later and said to come in for CT Scan. Called in to see consultant….a 3cm nodule/mass found on right upper lobe and inflamed lymph nodes! Sent for PET Scan and bronchoscope….took biopsy of lymph nodes.
hospital phoned to say biopsy inconclusive….so will need a CT Guided biopsy which they will take from the nodule/mass.
Waiting for appointment for this!!
I still have rib pain but on left so is this relevant. No coughing, not out of breath, no weight loss.
Haven’t told any family or friends yet as nothing concrete to say…..so only me and my husband know…..also hiding all this from 3 teenage kids!
Just in limbo and torturing myself with possible outcomes!
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Walkroundthevillage
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I fully appreciate how scary this is as they found a similar sized mass in my husbands upper right lobe earlier this year completely by accident as, like you, there were no other symptoms. It’s easy to say now and friends and people on here told me not to fear the worst but it’s hard to stop your mind going into overdrive. The hardest part will definitely be the waiting and while, in hindsight, it all moved pretty quickly, but for us the waiting seemed to go on forever. Again people told me not to google things but it’s hard to resist looking at stats etc but this really did make me worse so I’d advise against that as treatment really has improved. We are 6 months on from diagnosis and he had a lobectomy in April and life is pretty much getting back to normal apart from learning to recover from the emotional rollercoaster. We really do appreciate how lucky we were compared to some people and how finding this early and accidentally really made all the difference. Please hang on to the fact that finding this early is a good thing and accept there are good stories out there too and find people you can talk to about your fears in confidence as keeping things to yourself sometimes just puts more pressure on you.
glad your husband is going on all right. I remember the fear when I googled 'cardiothoracic surgeon' and thought somebody would cut open my chest then reading statistics that seemed horrific. It has taken me years of involvement to better understand the way they're portrayed and what they mean and have asked CRUK and others to unravel the statistics to stop them frightening people in this way. When I learned how few people were detected early enough for surgery to be a possibility I felt even more grateful. Now we have some early detection mobile scanners in some parts of the country for those most at risk it has highlighted the difference early detection can make as well as highlighted how many people have lung nodules that do not develop into anything at all.
Hi, can I ask what area you live, I have been exactly where you are and it's a complete nightmare, I have now had lobectomy on both lungs, first in 2021 and then 2023, my treatment was at the Harefield Hospital and they were absolutely fantastic, the worst part of this was my mind, the fear and thoughts caused a complete breakdown, please don't allow this to happen, talk about it, Roy Castle were brilliant as were the MacMillan trust, you need solid knowledge advice and understanding, it is now easy for me to say don't worry, but I was scared too and without talking about it I doubt I would have come through it. Take care of yourself and seek as much help as possible.
Thank you for your reply, I am sure that the Harefield Hospital has patients from all over, Of course I am not a expert and can only speak of my experience, what I can say for sure is talking to the Roy Castle and MacMillan team's was absolutely crucial in stopping my spiral of despair and giving me actual facts and not guess work, I wish you well and would say to stay as positive as you can, if I can help at all please ask.
I'm so sorry you are scared, I think many of us on here have felt the same way. I've had bowel cancer that metatisised to both lungs, I had a lung resection and a lobectomy, I'm still here. There are so many positive stories of recovery. I'm sending love and very best wishes and encourage you to take care of yourself. Build up stamina now if you can, walk, eat as healthily as you can, laugh a lot. Love your family and friends xx
Welcome to our forum, I am sorry to hear that you have a 3cm nodule, without a doubt this will be a very worrying time, waiting for further investigations will cause great anxiety, unfortunately until these are completed it is a horrible waiting game. As Hopeful 51 has said try not to google, I know this is very difficult so if you do look on the internet, stick to UK based sites such as
Many other sites can have inaccurate or out of date information and this can in turn can increase anxiety.
If there is anything you would like to discuss you can email ask the nurse at lungcancerhelp@roycastle.org or call our free phone nurse led helpline number on 0800 358 7200 Monday to Thursday 0900-1700 and Friday 0900-1600
I feel you, this is very scary! I've been in this place 5 months ago, I'm 39... There are treatments especially if you have a specific mutation- hopefully they will find out soon!Hang in there❤️❤️❤️
Hope you get some answers soon Walkroundthevillage
As 555Violet555 says there are treatments for specific mutations, and I wanted to add there are excellent treatments for people who don't have specific mutations too!
My husband was diagnosed 2.5 years ago with advanced NSCLC - an absolute bolt out of the blue (we have teenage children too). His cancer didn't have any mutations but he has immunotherapy and its a game-changer.
I hope your nodule / lymph nodes turn out to be nothing concerning, but if not, you'll find plenty of support and advice here. x
Being afraid is totally normal. When it gets bad try a bit of meditation. If you don’t meditate already there are free apps for your phone or computer. Meditation helped bring me back into the moment to care for what I needed to be doing and to chase the scary “what ifs” away.
Most lung cancers are found when they metastasize to another organ. (Usually the brain, adrenal glands or liver). There are no pain receptors within the lungs as there are other places, and, they can’t be found by feeling for lumps like some other cancers.
There’s a lot of hurry up and wait when getting a complete diagnosis . When you have the biopsy , there will be a pathologist in the room who will do a cursory study to determine if it’s small cell or non small cell. If it’s small cell they will get treatments started swiftly If it’s non small cell, it can take up to 72 hours to determine if it’s adenocarcinoma, squamous cell, or some other rare form of nsclc.
It will take a couple more weeks for them to get the results of the biomarker (genomic) testing to determine if you will require chemotherapy or a targeted therapy pill.
I send hope that the inflammation in your lymph nodes is the body reacting to the cancer and ramping up production of T-cells to fight it Is the pain on the opposite side of the nodule?
Hi my nodule was 3cm and my hilar node was inflamed which panicked me thinking it was in my lymph nodes. Luckily I've just had a lobectomy and all nodes and margins were clear so try not to worry to much about the inflamed node. The waiting is horrendous I hope you get some answers soon.
Welcome to the site. it's natural to feel every twinge must be related to what they've found but may not be - it sounds lucky that your doctor sent you for proper tests. the lungs themselves have no pain receptors and as your pain is on the other side, it may have some other cause but at least you've had the scans and awaiting the biopsy.
I'm not far from you (Sandwell) and mid Oct felt really off with strange symptoms for me. Driven to Sandwell A&E arriving around 10.30pmFriday night - full of drunks, football injuries and babies. It took over an hour to get a nebuliser and eventually sent for a chest x-ray by the triage doctor, then sat in a bay until after 3am when emergency doctor finally got around to seeing me. When in x-ray room, the 2 radiographers said 'what is that? is that a clot?' which I'd kept to myself as my partner's mother had died from a clot on her lung when she went into a routine knee exploration procedure at New Cross hospital, Wolverhampton. The triage doctor gave me steroids and antibiotics and acknowledged I was in a bad way.
The emergency doctor looked at my notes and said I was well enough to go home! I refused to be discharged until I had x-ray results. She asked me who had sent me for chest x-ray as she wouldn't have done. She returned sheepishly 10 minutes later saying one of my blood tests needed redoing (potassium levels) advising there was an anomaly on my chest x-ray. When pushed for more detail, said there was a lesion on my upper left lung but said it was 'incidental' and could be sorted later'. when I asked about my other symptoms including sudden stress incontinence (full bladder emptying) on coughing (sudden onset cough) she said all women of childbearing age had problems on that front. I explained I'd never had children nor stress incontinence so something had caused my pelvic floor to collapse but she wasn't interested and I was wheeled to another room to await the blood test. I was forgotten about until 4.40 when a nurse asked what I was doing there so explained re blood test. Emergency doctor returned for my observations when they admitted they hadn't done any. eventually discharged at 5.25am and home in bed by 5.50am.
The next night after 8 more steroids/antibiotics symptoms were worse and I had a swelling on the left side of my neck that I'd not noticed before. I phoned the hospital who told me to call an ambulance so I was admitted and misdiagnosed (despite chest x-ray) and mistreated as uncontrolled asthma for a week.
No CT could be done as cough was worse and couldn't lie still to be scanned so an appointment made for 2 weeks later. However the day before I had a call to say the scanner had broken and they needed to order parts. I tried to change the scan to City hospital (their other site) but unable to do so as consultant n 2 weeks holiday and only he could change appointment. It took over a month (late Nov) to get the CT scan despite XR clearly showing something. A week later I saw registrar who showed me the scan although didn't know what I was looking at. She pointed out a white blob on the righthand side and said it shouldn't be there and likely cancer. When I asked what of, she said 'lung' so I said I'd never smoked how on earth could I have lung cancer?' she backtracked and said she couldn't interpret the scan so it might not be. A couple of days later phoned for a PET scan at QE Bham then a letter to see a consultant (cardiothoracic surgeon) 2 weeks later. A few days after Pet scan surgeon's secretary phoned to attend Heartlands hospital, first thing next morning (around 8 days prior to scheduled appointment). I saw the surgeon who said this was a large mass and needed urgent surgery to remove with half my left lung. I had that done by open surgery 2 weeks later (16/12) and on 13/1, learnt it had been non small cell lung cancer (adenocarcinoma 7cm tumour).
The reason for me explaining my story in such detail is like you, I'd not lost weight, not had a long cough (only sudden onset cough worsened in hospital) and no symptoms listed in lung cancer symptoms. Despite it clearly showing on images, no urgency was given. I was told it was rare for never smokers to get lung cancer but an increasing number of women were being diagnosed especially at late stage. That was in 2010 and diagnosis in January 2011. I didn't have a biopsy - Ebus didn't exist, I had open surgery. - now majority is keyhole and since 2013 I've been involved in lung cancer research.
So much has changed including many more treatments and changes in every type of treatment that existed when I was diagnosed. The reason now for biopsies is to determine if it is lung cancer and if so precisely what type - as treatments differ considerably.
Many infections and inflammation cause lymph nodes and lung nodules (which are very very common and most are not lung cancer) to increase in size. At this stage, you're not hiding anything from anyone as you're in investigations not yet at any conclusive stage.
One reasonss for late detection is so many other conditions have similar symptoms including pneumonia, covid 19, and others and many GPs do not refer patients quickly - usually sending them away for weeks/months with antibiotics/inhalers/steroids wasting valuable time.
I hid my whole experience from my family - for a number of reasons. I had no answers to the questions I was asking of medics so certainly didn't have the energy or emotion to answer other people's questions. The respiratory consultant had said I'd be kept in for a day or two and a scan done so I didn't tell them I was in hospital until the Wednesday afternoon and regretted doing so. One sister's texts when I was in the hospital was enough. My dad phoning to put my mum on the phone in tears (she has alzheimers) asking why I hadn't told her I was in hospital - I'd told him when she was at the hairdressers as it coincided with my sister's birthday (who died in 2001 aged 40) also had me in my hospital bed trying to placate her yet I was the patient. BTW I was back at work and swimming by the end of March 2011 and worked, travelled and swam ever since.
I've met some wonderful people through my involvement including a close friend who still rues telling her teenage son whilst he was sitting exams what she'd been told when her melanoma had spread to her lungs and she wasn't expected to live long. She's still alive now 20 years or so on and feels responsible he didn't get his grades! he's now a dad himself!
I've met lung cancer patients 10, 15, 18 years out from their treatments and one I know is 33 years out. Try not to write yourself off or into any category at this stage - please wait for the professionals to determine exactly what you have and what treatments may be offered. Fingers crossed it's not 'sinister' but if it is, there are likely way more treatment options than you're imagining... good luck.
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