Chest X-ray

My Mom's lung cancer journey began on April 30, 2014.  It started with a chest x-ray.  Two and half weeks earlier at the Purdue nursing reception I had said to her she needed to go the doctor. I don't know why it took her that long for her to go to the doctor. There isn't much on her calendar in those two and half weeks that would've prevented her from going sooner.  I don't know why I didn't ask.  It doesn't really matter, but it is an unanswered question I have. I have many unanswered questions about that chest x-ray. None of them are really of any importance in the end, but I am left puzzled.

She had an appointment with the doctor at 1:15 PM for her shortness of breath, cough, fatigue, weight loss, and depression.  A chest x-ray was done. The results showed pneumonia.  She sent me this text.

PTL=Praise the Lord. She was ecstatic about this because she was told, I think, that there was no cancer.  She was terrified she had cancer.  She believed she had escaped.  She'd stopped smoking the night of the Purdue reception. She was going to start fresh. She thought she had a second chance...and that breaks my heart.

I have so many questions. I would really be interested to see what that chest x-ray showed. How did it not show the huge mass? The collapsed lung? Did the doctor read it preliminarily in the office and the pneumonia obscured it? Did the radiologist then read it later and said "Hey we need to look at this further." Did the doctor see how bad it was and not want to tell her yet until he had further data? Did someone really tell her there was no cancer? Did she just assume this since she was told pneumonia?

I know my sister-in-law Carly, a radiation therapist, was still worried about cancer.  Ryan told me she had seen patients with masses the size of softballs obscured on chest x-rays by pneumonia. "No you guys," I thought, "She said there was no cancer." I responded back that I've had hundreds of patients with chest x-rays showing pneumonia, never once had it obscured a mass. She said no lung cancer.

None of my questions really matter, she was still treated expeditiously. That Wednesday she also had a blood draw called a D-dimer done. It came back elevated possibly indicating a blood clot in her lungs. She was called back on Friday morning to come in immediately for a CT scan of her chest. And that CT scan showed the truth.