Hey Stickin'!!!
Great to see you again! I started my career as a glassblower a little over 15 years ago and learned from my mentor about the hazards of the profession. These included using asbestos paper to insulate and form tools and holders, etc. and silica that was vaporized when heating quartz glass. Both of these materials, if not used properly could potentially cause cancer. (BTW... I no longer use asbestos!) Consequently, I discussed this with my family physician and he recommended that I have a base-line chest x-ray done with follow-up x-rays done at 5 years. My 5 year x-ray revealed a spot on my lung and then my doctor recommended the chest CT scan, followed by another after 3 months to check to see if the spot was growing. Thankfully, the spot did not increase in size, so the verdict was that the spot was probably some scar tissue or something. Anyways, I had another follow-up CT scan a year later with no growth of the spot. You can imagine the scare that all of this gave me and was one of the contributing factors that influenced my decision to quit smoking!
I smoked for over 37 years and my physician never recommended a lung CT scan until the spot showed up on x-ray, nor have I ever heard of a doctor recommending that to my friends that continue to smoke. Maybe the scan would be a good test to have if you were having some symptoms. Personally, I would ask my physician if he thought that a chest x-ray would be suitable to detect any irregularities in my lungs before taking that next step of having a CT scan. An x-ray is much less expensive with much less radiation. If there were any concern after an x-ray, then a CT scan would be recommended. Also, I really didn't care for the nauseous feeling I got from the iodine dye injection prior to the CT scan.
I also have a family history of heart disease which may have been caused by smoking. My brother and father both had heart attacks in their 50's and yes, that was another of my motivating factors to quit. I'm on cholesterol lowering pills and low-dose aspirin, but have never heard about the recommendation of having a calcium scan.
I am sure that the scans would give your physician some great information about your current health and may now be considered standard operating procedure... sort of like a preventative maintenance program for your vehicle. I guess you'll have to decide if you think that it is worth the expense both monetarily (insurance deductable?), and radiation-wise.
I hope that this gives you something to think about. Remember I'm not a physician, just a glassblower and these are some of the things I would find out before I would commit to the scans.
Jim
