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[louie]

 
My name is Louise.  I live in Wisconsin and I have blasto.  I would like to tell my story and see if anyone can answer an important question.
 
 
I thought I had a cold (bad one...after 4-5 weeks went to clinic).  They did a chest xray and found an "area of concern".  Next step was a CT scan.  After that, the clinic called and said they wanted me to see a pulmonologist.  We have only one here in our relatively small city.  The same day, they called back and said they wanted me to see a Thoracic surgeon (again, we have only one).  The nurse on the phone said that they would do a bronchoscopy.  My understanding of this was that it was a method to get a biopsy.
 
I went to the surgeon, and he told me that I had a large tumor and that it needed to come out, and soon.  He said there was 50% chance on malignancy.  Said he would go in, take a piece out, check it, and then remove it if it was NOT malignant, and remove the whole lobe if it WAs malignant.
 
Woke up from surgery and found they had taken the lobe, but they did not biopsy.  He said that it was because it was larger that he thought and ir was higher up...near where the 2 lobes meet.  He told me he was 95% sure it was primary lung cancer.  3 days later he came in and said it was Cryptocococcus Neoformans, which is also a fungal infection.  Put me on a drug for that.  2 weeks after surgery I was told that it was Blasto.  I got ahold of the original pathology report and discovered that it said blasto all along.  I did not start on antifungal treatment for this until almons 1 month after surgery.
 
Now, my question is......did I lose my lobe unnecessarily?  Couldn't he have done some sort of biopsy to discover this, instead of being so sure that it was cancer?  He was not familiar with blasto, I'm sure.  I feel this may be a case of medical malpractice.
 
Can you tell me whatever you know about this?
 
Grateful!
 
 

[Doris3175]

I sent you an email.....check it out

[AHLEX]

hi something similiar happened to me last year...im 21yo and im from montreal quebec...in october 2005...one night before going to bed...i spat about a teaspoon of bright red blood...i went to the er right away...and they kept me in for 5 days..i was previously healthy and had no symptoms what so ever...the xrays came out clear...they still sent me to a pulmonologist....i had a bronchoscopy..and it came out negative as well..my pulmonologist still wanted me to have a ct scan...they found out i had a nodule(about 2 x 2cm) in my lower left lung...after a few more ct scans and tons of blood tests..my pulmonologist decided that i should take a PET scan(which is really accurate to spot malignancy) as he thought it might be cancer!!! the pet scan came out negative...now that cancer was pretty much ruled out my pulmonologist still advised me to get my nodule resected...so they sent me to a thoracic surgeon at the jewish general hospital...he told me that he would do a wedge resection thru VATS(with cameras) which is a lot more painless and u only get 3 little scars   instead of the big insisions...tho he told me that if it turned out to be malignant(which was unlikely) he would have to remove my lower lobe...when i woke up my surgeon told me it was benign and that it was a granuloma(a healed scar of previous infection)...the recovery only took me about 2 weeks or so but it was very painful.....the pathology said that i had histoplasmosis(very similar to blasto) which is a very common fungal infection and that its endemic along the mississipi...ohio and st lawrence(where i live) river valleys...afterwards i never had any anti fungal medication as they said that a single granuloma means that infection was already healed...

i have the feeling that ur pulmonologist and surgeon didnt have to remove ur whole lobe...ur operation was probably very painful and u probably had a long recovery...i think that the goverment and doctors in canada and usa should be more aware of fungal infections such as histoplasmosis and blastomycosis...i feel that like when its not cancer they dont pay as much attention or interest in their patients..these kind of infections arent rare in endemics areas and they should be more informed about them....anyways im glad that eventho they removed half of ur lung what u had was not cancer...stay strong and god bless u