Hey Doc, My Chest Hurts When I Breathe

Today is the first day in awhile that I've really been interested in writing. Well, maybe it's not the first day I've been interested, but it is the first day I've felt organized enough to do it. The last weeks have been trying for me and I want to bring things up to date. Back in May I started having some pretty bad pains in the left side of my chest every time I would take a breath. The deeper the breath the worse the pain. The pain didn't seem to affect my strength much, it just hurt when I would breathe. I limped along with it for a few weeks and finally went to the doctor's office for a checkup . I described the pain and tried to relate any other symptoms I could think of to help the doctor understand my discomfort. The doctor looked me over and x-rays were taken of my chest. The x-rays were checked and the doctor related to me that nothing abnormal showed up on the x-rays. The doctor thought that I might just have some inflammation around the chest cavity (maybe a strain in the muscle tissue) so I was given a prescription for an anti-inflammitory and sent home. The doctor told me as a precaution the x-rays would be sent off to another location for a second opinion. The prescription had no noticible effect on the pain. It persisted into June. Some days better, some days worse. Going into June I was really not feeling well. One day in early June I got a call from the doctor's office concerning the x-rays that had been taken of my chest. It seemed the second opinion folks had contacted my doctor because they noticed a visible "nodule" in the x-rays and thought that I needed to come back in for additional x-rays, or better yet, schedule a CT scan. The technician told me over the phone that they could handle arrangements for a CT scan for me. I enquired about the details and told them to schedule it. They said it could be scheduled within a week and that they would be back in touch with me. Four or five days went by and I didn't hear anything. The idea of a "nodule" in my chest was bothering me and I started wondering why it had taken a second opinion for it to be discovered. I was not comfortable with the way I was seeing this going so I decided to call the doctor, ask some questions and maybe even pick up the x-rays. That's what I did. Next stop, a clearer second opinion and Valley Imaging...