Hi all, thanks for being here. I am having a trouble making a decision and thought some of you may have some insight that could help. This is a long post but I want to give the entire story so it makes sense. I'm a 47 yr old female who is pretty sedentary. I'm not overweight, but my diet is horrible (mostly processed foods).
On Feb. 16 I went to urgent care because I had a horrible cough and low grade fever (I did not have a primary care doctor at the time). They told me I had bronchitis, gave me a nebulizer treatment, and sent me home with antibiotics and oral steroids.
Fast forward to March 11, I was back at urgent care, still w/o a primary care doctor. I still had a horrible, deep rumbly cough, and now had pain in the right side of my chest. I was short of breath and occasionally felt dizzy. This time they took a chest x-ray (said it was clear), gave me a neb treatment, steroid shot, and again sent me home with a z-pak, and more oral steroids...along with a nebulizer to use at home.
This brings us to present day. I found a primary care doctor and went to see him two days ago for the very first time. I still have the cough and pain in chest, shortness of breath, a little wheezing. He spent several minutes with me talking about my symptoms. I brought the papers from urgent care with me so he could look them over as well. I had run out of Albuterol the day before, so I was coughing a lot while with him and he took notice. Then he said I have what's called COPD. Later, he listened with a stethoscope, and ordered a CT scan (not yet scheduled). So, based on the symptoms I gave him, what he heard in my lungs, and the cough he heard, he sent me home with cefdinir antibiotics, more Albuterol, some cough medicine, Advair, and ProAir. If I use both the Albuterol and proair, I get tremors so bad that i can barely function.
I've been trying to decide if I should look for a pulmonologist for a 2nd opinion, or if I should wait until after I get the CT scan results and see what the Dr. says/does next. Thoughts?