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Bagpuss71
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Morning all, 

Over several months I've had back pain/discomfort from my shoulder blades down, coughed up blood, a cough that hasn't gone away, although I don't cough all day everyday  and short of breath after not being that energetic. 

I've recently had an x-ray (which showed no abnormalities, as far as I am aware) , blood test and a CT Scan.

I have received an appointment to see a consultant on Thursday but my active, or overactive mind is in 6th gear. My question is, if there was nothing wrong, surely a trip to my GP, a phone call or letter to say everything is clear would suffice, rather than wasting a rather busy consultant's time and putting further strain on an overworked department. So seeing a consultant means there maybe something amiss? 

Anyway, thank you for reading and any advice would be appreciated. 

Bagpuss

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    Hi Bagpuss,

    Everyone who has been down the cancer diagnosis pathway will empathise with your over active mind.

    I can only talk to my personal experience but I've been there myself twice. The first was with a bowel cancer scare which turned out to be something less scary. The second time (many years later) turned out to be oesophageal cancer. On both occasions I was given the results of my diagnostic tests and scans in person by a consultant.

    Try not to second guess things, there are well established processes in place at every hospital and cancer centre. If you think about it, if these results were given out by a junior doctor or a GP many of us, including me, would be asking whether they were qualified to make such a diagnosis and demand to see a consultant! 

    In some countries these results are given out by phone but in the UK normal practice is that whoever leads the multi-disciplinary team gives out the results face to face. 

     

    Best wishes and good luck!

    Dave

  • Offline in reply to davek

    Morning Dave, 

     

    Thank you very much for your reply and your wishes.

     

    The problem in my mind is that if it was cancer a consultant would be telling me, if not and its something else then it would be referred back to my GP for further tests or something else.

     

    Lol, one will try to slow this overactive mind down :cool:

     

    Thank you again

     

    Bagpuss

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