I started with shortness of breath and my Primary did not have an appointment and sent me to Urgent Care. UC chest x-ray was abnormal, so I told them to set me up with Pulmonologist, why waste time going back to Primary?
I can self-refer. The first local appt was with Pulmonologist with
expertise in asthma not lung cancer. She ordered CT scan (abnormal) and then PET scan (recommended by CT scan). I read the results and knew I was dealing with possible lung cancer, so I told the Pulmonologist to forward scans to Mayo Clinic because I knew she was not expert in lung cancer. The CT scan described the nodules and ground glass, and the PET scan confirmed the possible cancer and also told doctors that my probable lung cancer had not spread outside the lung. That decided my treatment options...I was good candidate for surgery which I had within weeks. An experienced Specialist is important because they can avoid unnecessary tests...Mayo did not do a needle biopsy on me because they knew immediately what I had. Surgeon told me 80% chance it was cancer. They did robotic biopsy and removal of lung cancer in one procedure.