CT lung cancer screening

@merpreb, I understand that everyone doesn’t have the options. I have 2 close friends among that group. We are on Medicare and have a supplement and we were extremely cautious about which supplement we got as my breast cancer appeared prior to that while still on group insurance from my husband’s employment. I am assuming that Mayo radiologists may have the same specialized equipment you spoke of as I get very precise measurements of my nodules. This time my scan is at 8:30 and I see the dr. at 2. I don’t get beyond the stress. However, I do go down and walk on the beach almost every day from 3-6 miles, depending on tides. It’s harder to walk at high tide so those days are shorter walks. That helps me tremendously I think. Of course, everyone doesn’t live near a beach.

@merprep I just got the results of the x-ray. It is hard to understand with my docs accent but he said it looks like a recurrence of the pneumonia. They sent me for antibiotics and then I'll have a follow-up ct scan. I'm relieved they didn't use the word cancer or tumor but apparently I have had this pneumonia since March when I was hospitalized. I realize I left the hospital early because I was on vacation in florida and felt fine.and I further screwed up by not having the repeat x-ray for 2 months after the script was written. I'm actually relieved it doesn't appear to be lung cancer. But what do I make of this persistent infectious patch? Obviously if after the antibiotics and a clean ct I can put it behind me but what if the ct still shows the infection? I'm thinking thye may have given me the wrong antibiotic to take when I was released from the hospital in march or I didn't stay long enough as in-patient and take the iv antibiotics which were working well.

@joelars- Great news abut it not being cancer. I'll take a pill to celebrate any day! Pneumonia can be very tricky to get rid of. Be patient and let your doctor guide you and listen to him! And no more what ifs! Ok? Relax and rest

Now my concern is the connection between COPD and pneumonia. I googled it and I'm told COPD sufferers especially if 65 or older, are almost 8 times as likely to contract pneumonia. I never had it until 14 years after I quit smoking. That was in 2016. Then in 2019 I had it again. I get vaccines. I wonder are there people on this site with COPD that don't get it or rarely get pneumonia (I hope).

I never get pneumonia. It is just harder on copd patients. I don't think we are more susceptible to getting pneumonia,,,just harder on us to heal from it.

@joelars You don't need an oncologist to order the annual low dose CT scans that are now on the same list of routine screening for people between 55-80 who currently smoke or quit within the last 15 years as colonoscopies are for people over age 50. And, when mine starting abnormal my doc ordered them more frequently and then turned me over to a specialist when it got to that point. One thing that I've concluded is that the more incompetent the practice the more skeptical the recipient becomes. I second what Merry says about looking elsewhere. You should be able to look through American Cancer Society's recommendations . Or, I've found that US New seems to publish good reports. Until it affected me I never realized how poor most of the hospitals in my area were. A neighbor with breast cancer went from one very local hospital who I wouldn't trust with most things to a place in a nearby state who always advertises in our area and passed away not long after. When I was diagnosed and saw in that report how poorly that place was rated compared to one very good one not far away it infuriated me that their advertising would so easily mislead that woman and her family. In our case, we decided that since we had the ability to drive 7 1/2 to Mayo we chose it. And, I have found that no one has the doom and gloom you are experiencing because the doctors do keep track of why you're there and spend quality time going through things together. Of course, wherever you go people are human but in my opinion, yours is a repeating pattern in people's comments when they'd been to places not specializing in lung cancer.

@joelars- I was hospitalized with Pneumonia last year but my Pulmonologist said it really was just bad bronchitis, which I have had before. SO I've never had it, which is very surprising to me. Did your doctor change your meds?

thanks for your response.
you mention 15 years as a cut-off. I'll hit 15 years next year.

@merprep the only meds I got were the antibiotics I picked up yesterday following his reading of the x-ray.

wait, I was 15 years in 2017. That was my last chest x-ray for cancer screening. I had this recent one because of pneumonia I contracted in March.