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Worried about cancer

nideba
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I'm 18 yrs old and i'm scared i have cancer.

I had a cough for a while and i had an x-ray two weeks ago and the doctors said i was completely fine and there was no sign of anything serious and that the chest pain i had was probably due to inflammation my chest from coughing.

Now, two weeks after, im getting scared i have lung cancer. This is because recently I've been feeling a weakness in one of my leg, i still feel chest pain, i'm starting to get headaches frequently, i feel pain in my shoulders, back and arm too and i also experience shortness of breath. Now I'm worried the doctors missed my cancer and the cancer has now progressed to an advanced stage.

However, my doctor also told i can feel pain in my body because the muscles in our body tend to hurt at times when fighting an infection. I also checked that stress can cause pain in your body and tbh I've been thinking it about it non-stop since my chest x-ray so i could be feeling these pains due to being very stressed out. I'm honestly very scared and I'm going to go to the doctors again tommorw and try get a CT scan.

 

Furthermore, if an x-ray doesn't detect lung cancer, but you actually have cancer, does that mean the cancer is at a really early stage?

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    Hi! It's normal to think the worst but if you did have lung  cancer rest assured it would have shown as a shadow on the x- ray! It is highly unlikely to have lung cancer at your age. I think 90% are over 60. Do go back to the doctors but I wouldn't be worried about cancer. It could be a whole range of things, from stress to nerve damage from coughing, if you have damaged a nerve in your back from coughing this can affect your legs and back and shoulders, I'm no doctor but this could be anything. I would definitely get checked again but try not to worry! Good luck xxx

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    To get so stressed about cancer is something that seems so bizarre to me, I'm not being unkind but when an x Ray has said it's clear, your doctor has also tried to explain  and reassure you that our bodies take time to recover from colds ect. that you still think the worse.  My husband had none of your problems, just a cough and yet he was diagnosed with advanced lung cancer after an x Ray showed a large shadow on his lung, so your x Ray is clear, tumours show up on an x Ray, that's why they do them.  So listen to what the experts have told you and everything should slowly return to normal.  Good luck, Carol 

  • Offline in reply to Dor06

    Lung cancers can be missed by x-rays though. There's a statistic which says x-rays can miss up to 23% of patients with the Lung cancer disease. Sure, i know that's a small percentage, but it proves that there is a chance someone could have lung cancer despite being told that they are clear of it by a chest X-ray.

     

    www.roycastle.org/.../

  • Offline in reply to nideba

    As my husband has lung cancer we have not looked up statistics but if you keep looking at these sites you will convince yourself that you are ill, regardless of what anyone on here says. .  

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