I am not one to shout about my life to all on Facebook etc but I really need to air how scared I am feeling right now, and I don't want to cause my family any unnecessary worry.  I am about to go have bloods taken and a chest x-ray and I know it may be nothing but it could be something and that terrifies me.  

For the past 6 weeks, but maybe longer when I think about it, I have had a pain in my back at my bra line and more recently a pain in my chest, I have a cough that will not go away, I get breathless when I talk and my voice gets hoarse.  I am exhausted every night.  I first put my symptoms down to stress as over the past 3 months I have lost loved ones and moved house and I didn't want to bother the doctors as I know they have so much to deal with Covid etc.  I did like we all do and googled my symptms....crazy I know but I think when you are scared you just want reassured but it ends up stressing you out more than helping.  So I phoned my GP yesterday, my GP phoned me back to talk about what was going on.  I told her, then she asked loads of questions and then said she didn't want to worry me but could I come in to the surgery to see her there and then to get bloods taken and she will organise for me to get an chest xray done.  I couldn't make yesterday as I am a teacher and working from home but I could go this morning.  I know it's probably nothing sinister but I can't get one of the questions she asked me out of my head...."Are you a smoker?"  My reply..."no but did work in the bookies for years and years before the smoking ban came into place..."  When thinking about it, I probably smoked about a 1000 pack a day over 12 hours....could this affect me now??

Apologies for the life story, I am curious though if anyone has been in a similar situation.