She has severe, persistent pain around the chest, upper back, shoulder and arm. She describes it as a pinched nerve, pressure on a nerve, or a bursting sensation. She also has frequent fevers and recurrent night sweats, and the pain is significantly affecting her daily life.
symptoms: persistent cough, blood in cough, fevers, night chills and sweats. pain in head
Over time, she has undergone several CT scans, PET-CT scan once, blood tests, bronchoscopy and hematology investigations. The scans have repeatedly shown multiple small pulmonary 3-8mm nodules, no definite cause for the severe chest and back pain. Pulmonary embolism, pneumonia, pneumothorax, fractures and obvious bone damage were not identified.
Her leukemia and hematology investigations have largely been normal, including blood counts, hemoglobin and platelets. No clear evidence of leukemia or another blood cancer has been found. Most autoimmune, inflammatory,
liver,
kidney and coagulation tests were also unremarkable.