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Early Onset Symptoms?
Hello all, I’m glad I’ve found this forum and hope to learn from your experiences and advice.
First things first, I’m 52 and was a smoker for many years though I have only vaped for the past 8 years (without flavours added).
I recently had a CT scan and in the notes it said ”Accentuation of the interstitial texture bilaterally in the peripheral subpleural area”. If the wording is a bit off it’s because I translated it from Italian as I am currently living in Italy. My doctor doesn’t seem to think this is very serious, perhaps because the symptoms I have are not atypical.
About two months ago I started to have a heavy feeling in my lungs during the night – a bit like I imagine asthma feels. About a month ago I did a really strenuous walk up a mountain. The next day I had the feeling that my right lung wasn’t working properly and felt constricted. I couldn’t breathe in deeply enough some of the time and I found it very difficult to sleep. After that my symptoms improved but never went away. I have no cough and am not unusually tired (I don’t seem to be gaining weight despite eating a lot but this could be my imagination). The strangest thing is that about two weeks ago my left lung began to act up too (less than the right) and the lungs alternate when I yawn! So, if the worse lung, my right, is constricted, I do a big yawn and it opens it up but then my left lung becomes constricted. It can last minutes or hours before it switches back. Perhaps it is simply that my right lung has opened very wide and makes the left feel constricted but I don’t understand why it would remain wide open for so long.
Has anyone ever experienced this imbalance or alternating or did anyone else experience a difference in severity between right and left lungs? Any light you can shed on my symptoms would be much appreciated. My worry is that given my test results, these could be signs of early onset and if so, I’d like to start treatment sooner rather than later.
I thank you in advance,
Anna
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1 Reply
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Very sorry to hear about your situation, the not knowing what’s happening can be very stressful. Are you seeing a pulmonologist? The fact they ordered a CT scan is good. Of course, speaking to your pulmonologist is best but in the mean time you might consider putting the results of your CT scan (in Italian) into ChatGPT 4o or Claude AI and ask it to explain what it means. I did that with my first CT scan report done for something else (and my MD overlooked it as it was in the “additional findings” section of the report that was mailed to me from an outside imaging company) Anyway, Chat GPT was very accurate with explaining the findings on this report – helped me considerably – even if it wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I hope your situation turns out to be nothing major. At your age, my wild guess is that it might not be pulmonary fibrosis but vaping can be very damaging to your lungs and you should stop if you haven’t already. Good luck
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