What causes fatigue, insomnia, intermittent joint pain, occasional cough and anxiety?

Brief Answer:
ok... several thoughts

Detailed Answer:
Simple answer. Chronic cough is a potential cancer sign and an indication for a chest x ray. greater than 10 year after quitting lung cancer gets to be about as likely (NOT VERY LIKELY AT ALL) as if having never smoked, but unfortunately this does NOT apply to 8 years of quitting.

The more likely causes are infection including tuberculosis, lung abcess (seen one of those this year masquerading as cancer), or just some residual lung damage from cigarettes. If you are coughing up a LOT of phlegm daily then the lung damage residual is very serious and needs treatment regardless. If it is JUST a cough, the chest xray holds, but the amount of lung left might be pretty normal and UNLESS YOU ARE COUGHING UP your lung, your loss of lung tissue per year is about the same as someone who never smoked (small).

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Brief Answer:
ct is an x-ray

Detailed Answer:
that is done in multiple images and the image reconstructed. They are equivalent. Since the radiation is less with x-rays, generally those are preferred but since there are multiple images at multiple angles CT's give demonstrably better images.

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