Obviously like everyone else who visits this forum for the first time, i am seriously worried but i have no one to talk to and my head is spinning right now.
About 10 weeks ago, i started to lose my voice and had a sore ear or jaw ( i couldn't tell where it was coming from) so after about 3 weeks of it i visited my GP (my doctor wasn't there and i saw a different doctor) who told me it would come back on it's own so i just left and felt that i didn't want to bother anyone again despite the fact that my voice completey went, all i had was a squeek.
Anyway, i was attending the hospital to be assessed for pulmonary rehabilitation due to COPD and the nurse asked me about my voice and she urged to go back to my doctors about it so i went straight there afterwards to make an appointment and the receptionist told me to sit down and even though the doctor was on his lunch break, he said he would see me there and then.
He said he would get a refferal off to ENT for me but as part of the referral, i had to have a chest xray so i went on the Monday and since then, it's been a whirlwind. By the time i got home from having the chest xray done, my GP telephoned to say that they had seen a shadow on my lung and he had me booked in for CT scan the following Monday, i had already received 2 more hospital appointment letters, one for the ENT and one for a respitory/lung specialist, the latter one was the day after my CT scan and i never dreamt what it was for, i just assumed that it was to do with my COPD but when i got there, i was informed that it was the oncology clinic and i don't know how i held it together. I saw the Doctor and she asked if i knew why i was there and i said no, not really so she explained that it was to do with my CT scan and she informed me that there was a mass on my right lung and the next step was a Pet scan and then a CT guided biopsy. Today i received another letter from the same doctor saying that after speaking to the consultant radiologist that they can't do the biopsy due to the position of the mass and that she would make an appointment with me for after the Pet scan to discuss treatment options.
Because i have no voice, i can't call anyone to ask anything and now i am sitting here thinking that the mass is either too large or too far advanced for them to do anything about.
I'm all sixes and sevens right now and don't know where to turn. I know i haven't even had a confirmed diagnosis yet but to say i'm bricking it, is an understatement because all of this has happened in less than 2 weeks since i visited my GP.
I suppose my questions are, is a CT guided biopsy the only option or are there other things that could be done ? How can they discuss treatment options without doing a biopsy to determine if i even have cancer ?
I'm sorry that my introduction may seem a bit jumbled up but that's what's it like inside my head right now :confused: