Any Ideas???

Brady054 · New User Joined: 17 Apr 2008 Posts: 2

Back in March I finally got my hubby to go to the DR for chest pain he was having. The DR sent him for a X-ray and that came back showing he had fluid in his left lung cavity. (Pleural Effusion) They did a Echocardiogram on him and it was fine. Sent him in for a CT scan with Contrast, and that showed Fluid and a 1.6 cm spiculated nodule in his lower left lobe. He went in for a Thorosentesis (Where they drain the fluid and test it) and it came back "Inconclusive" .. We were then referred to a pulmonary specialist and he ran test's. (Lymes,rheumetoid etc) All of that came back fine. He then sent us for another Ct scan and that showed fluid still in there and he "think's" that the 1.6 cm nodule is actually fluid in the phisher area of the lung.. So we got another Thorosentesis done recently and that came back as nothing.

Hubby had chest pain at work the other day and his left arm was tingly. So he came home asking me the signs of a heart attack. I told him we needed to go to the ER. So we did. They did a ekg and it was fine. DR admitted him for testing. They did a CT again and it showed fluid. (Dr thinks it's left over fluid) They did a lung scan to check for blood clots and a Doppler on his legs to check the blood flow. All of that was fine. They did a TB test and so far nothing is popping up. The blood work is not all back yet. They released him after 2 days in the hospital and we need to go in monday to the DR and get a referral to a thoracic surgeon (chest surgeon)They will biopsy and see if anything is going on in there.... The DR said this is last resort. He does not have any idea what is causing it. He said that he think's it's inflammatory (Lupus, or Rheumetoid etc ) or Cancer, but the fluid is not showing cancer...... All of the blood work is not back yet, we need to find out Monday........ This is all so stressing! No answers, nothing.... Does anyone have any idea on what this could be?!?

He does not think he had a heart attack. He said that the Pleural effusion and the chest issue were not connected.

pbj11 · Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2007 Posts: 1405

Hi,

So sorry to hear about your husband's problems. Pleural effusion can be free of any cancer cells or inconclusive, even when cancer is present in the lungs. My husband had 23 thoracenteses and almost all of the cytology reports found no cancer cells present in the fluid despite the fact that he had Stage IV lung cancer. Continued filling typically happens from an irritant of some type and unfortunately cancer can be one of the irritants. The effusion can also make him short of breath or create pain in the back, side, or chest. Nodules should show up on CT's differently than fluid would. An x-ray can show fluid.

I'm glad you are having a surgeon look into a biopsy, but why haven't they done a PET scan to see what might show up. It is a more sophisticated way of showing cancer activity then a CT scan. Insurance companies tend to balk about doing them because they are costly.

Make sure you pursue this, because if it is lung cancer, it may be earlier stage. We also went through a lot of tests on my husband before a thoracic surgeon did a wedge-section biopsy for a definitive diagnosis.

I wish you and your husband much luck. Please keep us posted and feel free to ask any questions.

PBJ
_________________
Husband diagnosed with NSCLC Stage IV. (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer) Fought & lived 2 1/2 years with multiple lines of treatment.

Post describing our battle: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=7026&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

	Cancer Forums Forum Index -> General Cancer topics	All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

A website for discussions about any type of cancer, including lung cancer, breast cancer, mesothelioma, prostate cancer, laryngeal cancer, leukemia, lymphoma, multiple myeloma and others