Hi folks,

Always been a fit and healthy woman, in 30s. In January I developed a cough without a cold, accompanied by central chest pains and wheezing. The cough never went away afterwards and it's been 6months now and I've felt tired and run down since, as if I can't shake a cold which never held. Had a cxr in March which came back clear. 

I then noticed a swollen lymph in my neck in April which I put down a possible respiratory infection linked to the cough. In June I then suddenly lost my appetite and lost over 4kg in the space of 2 weeks. My normal weight is 58kg. 

I had a dental appt also in June for fillings and asked the dentist check the neck at the same time. He said the lymph needed to be seen by a GP. He described it as hard and static. I got an appt from the GP and saw a nurse practitioner who said she couldn't feel anything. Had a spiro test in the same week to test for asthma but that came back negative. Extremely tired. Constantly coughing, more breathless than my usual. 

Now, I happen to work in the hospital environment (I won't state what profession), so I avoid visits to the GP at all costs if I can help it as most problems go away after a month of monitoring. But this is beginning to concern me now and I'm not sure what to do, because even my request for a blood test for a fresh blood count was denied, let alone asking for an U/S or soft tissue MRI neck. Any advice from the teams will be welcome. Thanks.