Fie

[elainegrey]

Mom's CT scan of her lung -- because she had something noticed on a CT scan for some other issue back in February or January -- has come back as "compatible with primary pulmonary neoplasm" with a recommendation for a biopsy. The scan notes something that might be mucoid impaction or bronchopneumonia (follow up in three months), and structures "compatible with ... pulmonary fibrosis."

I think of her years of coughing....


I'm holding off on any cancer worries - biopsy is next. But reading about the pulmonary fibrosis and considering her history of coughing.... The average life expectancy after diagnosis of pulmonary fibrosis is four years, says the internet. I wonder about cognative decline and small mercies.

What will be will be.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

My oldest friend just lost her husband to pulmonary fibrosis. The four year diagnosis was just about right. However his health was otherwise good until the end, and probably masked many early symptoms for some time, so I suspect it was closer to 10 years once he started developing it. He lived pretty normally for all but the last 6 months.

Your mother's situation sounds like it could be quite complicated though given her existing problems. I'm sorry to hear that this difficult time could go on much longer than at first expected.

[elainegrey]

Yes, the complications are piling up. I'm not sure how much the doctor talked to my dad about the fibrosis, nor the confidence of the finding from just that one scan. I read some about pulmonary fibrosis and lung cancer and see the fibrosis limits the treatment options for the cancer.

I hope my parents find a route through this that has some lightness.