Hi

caught a cold from my son. Just like my son's cold, mine turned into a cough and fever. Went to the Dr. He heard the cough and ordered a chest x ray to look for pneumonia.

The chest x ray shows a nodular spot in my left lung. The dr wants me to have a cat scan to rule out anything bad.

I'm scared.

I'm 39 and a non smoker. I had pneumonia when I was 14 - I remember one of the symptoms as a horrible pain on my left side. I kind of remember someone looking at an x ray I had afterwards and saying they could see the scar it left on my lung.

I've looked on the 'net and I found out a spot on the lung can be anything from a scar to lung cancer. My mind has fixed on the worst things it could be - despite what i've read and the fact that the same dr who ordered the cat scan said it was either pretty likely or definite that I had pneumonia as he listened to my chest today.

I'm looking for confirmation this could be a variety of things and its likely not going to kill me.

Also, the dr said there's a high concentration of radon in ohio (where we live). I've seen stats that say of 1000 non smokers exposed to high concentrations of radon only 35 would develop lung cancer. It makes it sound like radon exposure won't guarantee lung cancer.

Mark