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I had difficulty swallowing, breathlessness, heart pounding and tightness in the chest.
I asked for a spirometry breathing test at the beginning of 2020 but shortly after Covid began our surgery didn’t offer it anymore. In 2022 I paid to get it done privately. The consultant suggested I also pay for a CT scan as he wanted to make sure.
The mass on my Thymus showed up and I was handed back to the NHS who did the PET scan and the operation to remove it.
My GP had only one other patient in 15 years with Thymoma and he didn’t recognise the symptoms which I’d had for 3 years. They were each attributed to some other cause.
I was very lucky that my tumour was not attached to another organ nor had it spread, but it was quite large by then.
Most people find out about Thymoma in a routine test for something else. It is not easy to see a GP, they tend to diagnose by telephone now. I’m certain many cases of Thymoma are missed. Because my operation was relatively simple, it was done by Robotic Keyhole surgery and I’m healing well. I can breathe in fully again for the first time in a few years.
