Hi all,
Firstly, I’ve been reading this forum over the last couple of weeks and I am I awe of the strength and courage of everyone that posts. I can really see and feel the community here and I love how you all look out for and support one another.
I hope I don’t offend anyone here - I don’t have a cancer diagnosis but I could really do with pulling on your experiences due to something of a journey of my own, albeit without any certainty.
I have been diagnosed with hypercalcemia (following a blood test for tingling in the fingers) and low sodium. I turned up at A and E one day knowing something wasnt quite right but not able to describe exactly how I felt. I also had experienced difficulty swallowing (no pain, just a feeling that food was an effort to get down).
AandE doctors warned me that the combination of high calcium and low sodium could indicate cancer furthermore, I had already been seeing a private consultant on a journey to diagnose primary hyperparathyroidism and she too had suggested cancer could be a possibility due to normal parathyroid hormone levels in my blood and normal calcium excretion in my urine (thus ruling primary hyperparathyroidism out).
I was admitted to hospital as a result of the low sodium and I had a CT scan of my chest, abdomen and pelvis which came back clear, as did a subsequent CT scan of the brain. The low sodium never returned to a normal level but has stabilised at around 132. I was in hospital for 12 days but they couldn’t tell me why my sodium was low at any point.
I have constant tightness and pressure in the throat and neck so have also had a camera in my throat to look for cancer there and was also told I don’t have throat cancer - all good news so far, of course.
However, aside from massive fatigue, weight loss and new, strange growths on my upper arms and a seeming reduced tolerance of direct sunlight on the hands and arms - all of which are very much present - I also have an intermittent deepish sounding wheeze when I breathe in. Today I have had this about 6 times - it typically happens when filling the lungs to capacity (not every time) but can sometimes occur on a standard breath in (again, far from every time). I also do have a whistle on exhale when forcing air out.
I just wondered respectfully whether anyone here had ever had any of these symptoms alongside a diagnosis. Given all of my symptoms, I’m genuinely concerned that they may have missed something on the CT scan and that lung cancer may actually be present.
I am genuinely anxious and feel a million times worse than I did 3 months ago in general (especially energy levels which seem to decrease by the day).
Has anyone had experience of my symptoms at all? Or had a tumour missed on an initial CT scan but identified on a subsequent scan? If so, how did you go about a diagnosis as I can tell medics are now just reading my anxiety and shutting down (as are some of the friends and family immediately around me).
I’m going out of my mind at the uncertainty and as such, I would appreciate any help or advice anyone can offer.
Thank you all for your time.
Hi Redmist sorry you have been feeling unwell, and I can see why you feel anxious with all the things that have been going on. No one here is medically trained so will be impossible for any of us to advise you as to what may be going on. We can only share our own experiences, so I will answer as best I can using my own experiences.
Firstly low sodium can make you feel very unwell. My dad had low sodium which they believe was caused by an infection. It made him very tired and confused for quite some time, he was very poorly until his sodium levels increased.
My lung tumour was picked up on an X-ray, and was very clear on a Ct. I have several tiny tumours scattered throughout my lungs, and they appear very clearly on the Ct.
There are times when I get extremely anxious about my cancer, and I know how things can play on your mind, and how anxiety can make you feel worse than the disease itself. Anxiety can play tricks with your brain, and make you believe there are things going on with your body when there are not. When a scan is due I start to imagine all kinds of aches and pains are disease spread, but once I have the scan result these pains miraculously disappear.
I hope your doctor is working with you to help you with your anxiety.
I agree, there have been a few lately, and it takes the help away from people who genuinely need it. I do wish people would stop listening to doctor google and listened to their experienced and well trained doctors, who tell them they do not have cancer. They should be happy and go live their lives, instead of coming here and rubbing salt into peoples wounds.
I do feel sorry for genuine people who have health anxiety, but again here is not the correct place for them to gain the help they so obviously need.
