I'm coughing up blood and now I'm seriously freaked out. (Probably gonna get bloggy)

HoneyDippinDan · 09-23-2008, 11:49 AM

If you've read some of my previous posts, you know I've had issues with laryngitis. Also, possibly some sort of nerve damage issues.

For a while now I've have a problem when I brush my teeth. Sometimes if the toothpaste hits the back of my throat, it sets off my gag reflex something fierce and it makes me choke and gag for at least a couple minutes, and sometimes I gag so hard that I end up vomiting. It just happened again today and this time there was blood coming up. Not a ton of blood like an open wound but obviously any bleeding from the throat just isn't normal. I can tell that the glands in my neck are swollen and they have been for a while now. I figured it was just me getting over from my cold but now I'm not so sure since it's been a couple weeks now. I also can feel some swelling of the lymph nodes in my armpits. What's really, really freaking me out about all this is I had similar symptoms about a decade ago and that turned out to be cancer, Hodgkin's Disease to be exact.

I just called in to work and had to finagle my way into seeing my regular doctor as soon as possible. I like my doctor but it's kind of a pain in the ass to see him since he likes to have stuff scheduled way in advance. I had to talk to his nurse and convince her this doesn't seem like an emergency room type thing but definitely not something that should wait a week or so either. I'm seeing the doctor in a couple hours.

Fuck, fuck, fuck, this shit is scaring me.

jess · 09-23-2008, 11:51 AM

Oh no, I hope you're okay! Let us know as soon as you can *hugs*

Criden · 09-23-2008, 11:53 AM

Sorry to hear it, man, that's awful. Please get to a doctor as quickly as humanly possible. I hope you feel better soon.

Doug · 09-23-2008, 12:32 PM

Get better soon!

RickLM · 09-23-2008, 12:33 PM

Geez, you've been sick for weeks. You need to get to a doctor who knows what he/she's doing.

Scotland Green · 09-23-2008, 12:38 PM

The 911 Emergency Board is that-a-way.

Spoiler:

Jef UK · 09-23-2008, 01:14 PM

Do you smoke? When I smoked, I had that brush back of tongue, gag reflex thang. Now I don't.

HoneyDippinDan · 09-23-2008, 02:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jef UK

Do you smoke? When I smoked, I had that brush back of tongue, gag reflex thang. Now I don't.

Yes. I should be quitting but I'll admit I'm not putting nearly enough effort stopping as I should. I don't think about what I'm doing when I smoke, I just stick a cigarette automatically when I'm not busy doing something else. I guess that is why it is a habit.

I just got back from the doctor. I got an x-ray of my chest and shoulders and he didn't see anything to be concerned about. No cancer, for sure. He thinks the blood was just from me coughing or gagging really hard and that I probably just burst some capillaries and I should only be concerned if it continues to happen.

I asked about my voice being still a bit fucked up after three weeks time and he says that's normal with laryngitis. He said it often takes at least a month before the voice is 100% again.

I asked about the swelling I've been having in my throat, he felt that was still just my head cold still working it's way through.

I asked about the other symptoms I've been experiencing that could be possible nerve issues. He said he did take some time to look over my old MRI with a radiologist and they didn't see anything of concern. He thinks everything looked fairly normal. Now he's changed his opinion about sending me to a neurologist, he thinks it'll mean doing lots of tests and spending a lot of money just to be told everything is fine and now he thinks those weird symptoms may be the result of some anxiety and that I should hold off from doing anything since the symptoms aren't appearing as much as they were. He may still send me to a numerologist and will be calling me back if he changes his mind. Also, he saw from the x-rays that there are staples in my shoulder from when I had some lymph nodes removed and was diagnosed with cancer, and that these staples may be pinching a nerve, which would explain away some of the weirdness in my shoulder.

So basically I'm worrying about nothing in his opinion. I'm still not sure what to think, it seems to be a lot of weird things happening at once. I can appreciate the guy trying to save me some money but it would be nice to know something other than "it's probably just something passing through." At least he finally had a look at my shoulder with the x-ray, as I've been almost sure that there was something going on in there and I'm glad cancer has been ruled out.

Boogie · 09-23-2008, 04:10 PM

That is so incredibly weird. Saturday night, the exact same thing happened to me. I also just got over a cold and was coughing a bit, spat into the sink and to my horror, saw blood. Exactly as you described. I used to smoke for over 10 years and recently started up and quit again.

I went to the emergency room (since it was 11pm), 12 hours later, same diagnosis as you. Chest X-Ray showed up nothing, especially no cancer, and both the doctor and his resident agreed it was more than likely broken capillaries.

Im with you, it freaked me out while waiting for the results.

Kingsumo · 09-23-2008, 04:16 PM

Holy shit Dan

I am so glad to hear it is nothing too serious. Hope you start feeling better soon.

Boogie: Welcome, and even though I don't actually know you, good to hear you are fine as well.