Small lung nodules: How often should they be monitored?

@fracturedd- I'm so so sorry that you have to deal with all of this. It must be scary and have you on your toes all the time. I know that after having lung cancer I'm always looking over my shoulder.
If you don't need oxygen how are you coping with doing your daily routine?

No oxygen. I practice Bikram yoga and try to exercise daily. I try to eat as healthy as possible. I try to think in the present,, every once in awhile I think of how I don't really have any treatment that will help me if needed, and that scares me. So I'm just cautious. I just turned 40 and my body feels healthy it's just my darn lungs! I'm wondering if anyone else has had a talc procedure to fix a collapsed lung and had negative side effects?

@fracturedd - Good morning. What an inspiration you are! Research and breakthroughs for lung diseases and cancer have come a long way but still have miles to go. We just have to take the best care of ourselves that we can and hope for the best. I feel the same way that you do, I feel terrific but when I go full steam ahead my lungs pull me back to reality.
The talc procedure actually uses talc powder to help prevent the build up of fluid. : https://www.uwhealth.org/uw-carbone-cancer-center/palliative-lung-procedures/11037
When did you have this procedure?

I had the pleurodesis done 3 years ago. Once they put the talc in my chest tube they forgot to turn the machine on to inflate my lung so the talc could do is job and make my lung stick to the chest wall,,,I was left over night in such pain and confusion due to pain meds. When my doctor visited me in the morning they realized the chest tube was clogged so essentially the talc just created a clump in the base of my left lung,, which happenes to be my "good" lung. It didn't fix the collapsed lung. So weeks later they used a couple valves to "plug" up the lung and it worked. Ugh that healing was torture!! Anyways my recent CT says,,, change in the talc area. What does that mean!! I feel like that little bit of lung that is now taken up by this clump of talc is really hindering my health. Now I might have hypertension and I think it's because my lungs are working even harder. BTW I'm not over weight and eat super healthy. I don't want to take medicine for hypertension,,ugh. I just wonder if this has happened to anyone else??? And what their side effects have been and how they deal with it.

@fracturedd- Good morning. I continue to be stunned at the preventable illnesses caused by callousness of the medical field. This is absolutely horrible and unforgivable that this happened to anyone. I don't know how anyone pulls through something like this emotionally.
Do you think that your hypertension is caused by your anxiety about this whole catastrophe or because you aren't getting the O2 that you need?

Well my CT highly suggests hypertension. I have a ekg scheduled in July so until then I don't really know. My last ekg said I had slight mitral valve regergitation, and everything else was normal. I'm still hoping I don't have hypertension. I'm not really a nervous person. So I definitely think that this is just from my lungs working so hard. Emotionally I have overcome all of that. It took awhile. I am so thankful and shocked that I actually healed or maybe I should say recovered....I'm just a little more cautious now 😊

Well my last CT highly suggests hypertension. I have a ekg scheduled in July. My last ekg said I had mild mitral valve regergitation, but everything else looked good. I definitely think my lungs are working so hard and that would be the cause of hypertension. I'm not a anxious person. I'm so grateful that I healed, so emotionally I have let that go. For me I was more scared that the pain would never go away. So once my pain subsided so did my fear and now I'm all good!! Well I'm better 😉
I'm still wishful thinking my ekg will come back with good results.

Thank you for the articles..!

I have two small lung nodules described as "Ground Glass". One in each lung. If they start to grow they are assumed as CANCER. QUESTION: Will they be painful when they are growing? Wikll appreciate an answer please. Peach

@peach414144- Good morning. For the past 13 years, I have had many ground glass nodules in my lungs. I have what is called multifocal adenocarcinoma. There are many reasons for ground glass opacities but if they change and grow, yes they might be considered cancer, as mine have been.

This link will show you some of the causes of ggo (ground glass opacities)
https://radiopaedia.org/articles/ground-glass-opacification-3?lang=us
No, they do not hurt. These findings are early (when was this discovered) so you shouldn't feel a thing. I had a GG opacity in my lower left lung for 5 years and it has only grown 3cm in 5 years. That's like 3 dots of a pencil. Our lungs are huge so it takes a lot to cause pain in size.

Introduction. Ground-glass nodules (GGNs) on computed tomography (CT) are hazy lesions that do not obscure underlying bronchial structures or pulmonary vessels. GGNs are manifestations of both malignant and benign lesions, such as focal interstitial fibrosis, inflammation, or hemorrhage (ncbi)

Peach, when was this found?