My WH has had a cronic cough and alergy symptoms for about a month. His cough was bad, kept him up at night, couldn't complete a sentence...I insisted that he went to a Dr., who told him that it was his allergies triggering his asthma. She gave him some sort of breathing treatment in the office and took x-rays. He has a cough medicine w/codine and an antibiotic. He rec'd a call from the Dr.'s office saying they saw nodules in his lungs and he needed a CAT scan. We are awaiting the results.

We google'd it and the first site was Columbia University's, which had some scarry stuff on it regarding lung cancer. More searches lead to reading about infections from fungus, TB, heart-worm from pets, or benign and nothing wrong at all. The statistics about lung cancer isn't pretty.

WH is a non-smoker, age 46. If anyone has insight on this, I would appreciate it. We aren't going to get the results until next week, and it will be a long weekend.

Pulmonary nodules are a very common finding seen on Chest Xray's. They can mean a number of things. In your husband's case, being that he is 46 years old and a non-smoker, it is likely that these nodules are benign (i.e harmless). Small lung nodules like this are often residual calcifications of old inflammations (infections) that are chronic and have probably been there for a while and will ALWAYS be there. The usual standard of care is to get a CAT scan of the chest upon diagnosis, and then repeat the scan over 2 years at 6 month intervals. If the nodules do NOT grow in size in that time, than they are deemed benign. Other causes of lung nodules ****could***** be lung tumors (cancer), but usually (but not always) affect smokers. Old TB infections, old fungal infections could also account for these findings.

At the point, I would NOT research things on the internet and make a diagnosis or turn this into something yet it isn't. The nodule will be better defined by a high resolution multi slice CT scan that will give your doctor a better idea what you are dealing with.

These nodules ***can**** be very serious, BUT in your WH's case, given what you have told me, I would guess this not to be. You are doing the right thing in getting this checked out. It might be very helpful to see if he has had any history of having had an old Chest Xray....a previous comparison is the best thing to have now. OFTEN, we find that the nodule has been there for years, or was just missed previously.

Hope this helps.

Lem

Yes, it does, thanks. He did not have a previous x-ray for comparison. It is good to see that most are benign. I think if it hadn't been for his cough/chest wheezing and it should up do on the x-ray due to a physical/some other reason, it wouldn't have struck us the way it did. Also our neighbor in NJ, a very good friend of WH, past away from lung cancer 3 years ago, but he was a heavy smoker.

I agree about the internet, sometimes a little knowledge isn't good bc it isn't specific to the person.

Thanks again, I will not be worried now over the weekend.

Have you looked into sarcoidosis?

It's quite common and I think it's treated with steroids.

No, I haven't heard of sarcoidosis before. I looked at it and not sure it applies. Hopefully, this will be proven benign.