Well, I’m not going to tell you not to worry because of course you are; but I will send you masses of positive vibes instead.
You can’t do anything until you get the results back, and once you have those then you can see what to do next - however it turns out. It might not be BadNews.
Scary stuff indeed! Nonsmoker = less likely to have lung cancer, still…
If you want a happy-ending story, tho: about 6 years ago a friend of mine was diagnosed with something similar. Turned out she had a cyst in her lung (prob. due to a congenital malformation). A year of constant antibiotic treatment would make it shrink but it re-enlarged every time she stopped the antibiotics, so she ultimately had it removed. She’s healthy as a horse now.
Just for the there’s always hope for good news side. My dad was diagnosed with a mass in his lung after having lung problems for several months. After much more looking and daignosing they found it was… a peanut. Apparenly it had gone down the wrong pipe and was molding and infecting and irritating the lungs. A quick extraction, a course of antibiotics and all good as new.
I’m also in the “It could be Good News” group. Or at least, NOT Bad News. Please try to not dwell on this (yeah, right, I hear you saying in your head), and.or worry excessively. Please do keep us informed, however it turns out. My thoughts and prayers are with you.
I didn’t have the comparative nightmare of living in fear, but I did learn a thing or two about being scared shitless.
Try this: go buy yourself a magazine or newspaper you wouldn’t normally read, for me that would be like Cosmopolitan or the Financial Times. Concentrate. Read it.
You always have time to learn, and I learned far better when I was freaking out at the hospital than anywhere else. For example, did you know that it is considered uncool to combine artistically complimentary colors when you’re wearing clothes? Fashion is a whole other thing, I’m telling you… Oh, and Cosmo is telling chicks that once they’re worked up, ice cubes are totally cool for foreplay.
When I was Psych Nursing, one of the night shift supervisors had similar problems. He was a non smoker and had a tumor in the lower lobe of his right lung. He had it lopped out and it did him no harm at all. He couldn’t percieve the difference in lung capacity and once he recovered from the surgery he went back to life as normal. Last I heard it was all in the past for him - he has forgotten all about it.
Good luck. Hopefully it’ll turn out to be something relatively minor. Either way you know we’re all praying for you (well, the board atheists are thinking kind thoughts, but you get the drift).
