notify primary care doctor of patchy area on lung?
Hi everyone. I am new to this site. I am looking for some advice. I was diagnosed with stage lla breast cancer in 1999. I had chemotherapy(4 rounds of Adriamycin and another drug that I cannot remember at this point). I also had 6 weeks of radiation and finally tamoxifen for 5 years. This past weekend I was feeling terrible-fatiqued, chills, fever of 102.7, headache, etc. I went to one of those emergency clinics and the doctor ordered a chest x-ray to rule out pneumonia. You should also know that I had similar symptoms 3 weeks ago and I took an antibiotic at that time. Anyhow, the chest x-ray showed a patchy spot on the lungs (I felt so bad while I was there that I forgot to ask which lobe the spot was on). The doctor said that this was either pneumonia or an inflamed enlarged lymph node. I have assumed that it is pneumonia even though I really have very little cough. My question is: should I notify my primary care physician about the spot even though it is probably just pneumonia? Also, for the last year, my wbc had been a little bit below normal. It has been 4.0, then went to 3.8, then 3.6. My doctor sent me to a hemotologist when it was 3.6 and she attributes the lower than normal wbc as a side effect from the chemo. I recently had the wbc checked again(routine cbc) and it is 4.0. I have been sick on and off again for the last several months-primarily for what I thought was sinus infections. My primary care physician is not the one who treated me for the breast cancer-both my surgeon and oncologist have taken supervisory medical roles and do not see patients. Also, my mother had lymphoma 3 times and my grandmother had lymphoma 3 times (my grandmother was not my mother's mother). I know that I probably have nothing to worry about but any input would be appreciated.
Comments
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It seems odd to me that the clinic didn't advise you to follow up with your PCP anyway. Did the prescribe somthing to treat you? Whenever I go to the ER that is one of the first things they say before I leave.
Also, anytime I get any treatment that is not with my PCP I make sure he is listed on the paperwork so he gets copies of everything (I've actually only seen him once at the "meet and greet" appt when I was deciding on a PCP at the beginning of my dx since I needed one, but I would guess I have a huge file already lol).
I think no matter what the dx is, your PCP should be informed. I think if you've had so many issues lately with your lungs/sinus you might want to make an appt with your PCP for a full work up. You might still have the same bug but the antibiotics you've been on haven't done the job and you just need a stronger one to finally kick it.
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Thanks. The clinic is one of those MedExpress places and they didn't ask about a primary care physician. Also, while I told the assistant who took a quick medical history about my bc history, I didn't think to tell the doctor. (Plus I was feeling so bad I wasn't thinking quite straight). I will probably call my doctor and see if they want to get the x-ray from MedExpress. The doctor did prescribe something-avelox.
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I would think the fever, chills, etc., would be strange for mets to the lungs, but I was told once you have BC that NO stone is ever left unturned. I would go to your oncologist and let them talk to the radiologlist about the x-ray. That way your mind will be at ease. Then they can order a CT or whatever, that will show what it is.
I went into my gyn and told him I had my period for 15 days. Since I have a history of BC now, he skipped the "let's wait and see" and went straight to "let's do an endometrial biopsy here and now". They really get aggressive with every symptom.
I would go and find out what's going on. By the way, my brother had erlictheosis (sorry - sp) which is a tick borne illness and it totally tanked his white and red blood cell counts. Lots of stuff can throw them off. But I'd still follow up if your symptoms don't resolve.
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Update-I had a bad reaction to the avelox-heart palpitations (I was diagnosed 2 years ago with a tachycardia arrythmia that I can't help but think may be related to the chemo I took). Anyhow, I got in to see the primary care physician and told him the whole story about my trip to MedExpress and he is going to get the x-rays from them and have a radiologist on staff look at them to determine if it really is pneumonia or anything else that needs to be monitored.
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