Purrs for my brother, Scott (PING: Howard?!)

Before I left on my trip, Scott called me early one morning to say he was
very ill. He had been sick for 4 days. That morning he got up to take a

Monique Y. Mudama...

Many purrs for Scott.

shower and got so dizzy he nearly passed out. He was having trouble
breathing and almost called 911. He was in a panic. He called me and I
rushed right over. I got on the phone and arranged for him to be seen at my
regular doctor's office. (He'd been there before but not for about 6
years.) They took him right in; he was still signing those HIPAA forms when
they called his name. Turned out he had a rather nasty case of bronchitis.
They gave him a bunch of physician's samples and had him breathe on a
nebulizer for a while to loosen the gunk in his lungs.

However, the chest x-ray showed a rather indeterminate spot, located as it
was at the joining of a couple of ribs. So they sent him earlier this week
for a CT scan. The CT scan showed two non-calicified nodules in his left
lung - one is 5mm in the upper lobe and one is 6.7mm in the lower lobe.
Also several "subpleural blebs" and several small "mediastinal lymph nodes".
I have no idea what all this means but they were going to schedule him for a
PET scan. He did say so far no one has mentioned the "C" word but I think
that's what the PET scan is used to determine?!

And yes, he's been a smoker since 1970 although when he was so ill with the

dnr...

Uh, I'm not Howard (whom I'm sure knows a lot more about PET scans than
I do....never worked at a facility where they had one during my career; all
I
know is that like MRI, they can show a lot of detail regular xrays don't
show)
but for what it's worth and to ease your worry I hope: CT is also very
informative
to docs but is practically routine these days for in detail 411.....I used
to work
the fluoroscopy units for *lung biopsies* which is what they used then to
look
for the big C....during the exam (patient is awake because they need to have
him stop breathing at certain points) samples are taken from actual lung
tissue at the areas of concern on xray, and sent to lab for analysis, the
ultimate proof or not of "C". Howard B. will hopefully fill us in on PET
scans. Don't waste any worry on "subpleural blebs" nor "mediastinal
lymph nodes". Long-time smokers get all kind of defensive body tissue
in their lungs that is *not* the big C (which also has nothing whatsoever
to do with bronchitis, which I understand can make one *very* sick).

bronchitis he practically quit since he couldn't breathe anyway.

Marina...

Many purrs on the way for your brother, Jill.

Christina Websell...

Lots of purrs for Scott's illness to turn out not serious.

kilikini...

I'm late in replying, but I've been working and not on the computer. How
awful to have to deal with this and your father's illness as well. My
entire fur-family is purring for yours.

{{{{{{{{ Hugs }}}}}}}

glsummer...

Jill, I'm so sorry. I hope Scott will be okay. Purrs for him and you
and the family.

Ginger-lyn

Home Pages:
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Adrian...

Purrs on the way. I hope it's something treatable and that the scare stops
him smoking.

polonca12000...

Lots and lots of purrs and best wishes for it to be benign and for your
brother to stop smoking,
Polonca and Soncek