My mom had been going back and forth to the doctor for years until about 2 years ago she was finally diagnosed with relapsing polychondritis. However, she has not and does not have all of the normal symptoms of polychondritis; she only has, until recently, chondromalacia or thinning of her airways and a persistent cough. Recently she could not breathe and her coughing was unbearable so she had to go to the ER. There they told her that her lung had collapsed (atelectasis), she was in another state at that time. When she returned home her pulmonary doctor told her that the doctors here in Texas noted possible cancer due to opacities shown on her Ct scan, BUT they did not tell her that while she was here in TX. BUT, her pulmonary doctor mentioned that relapsing polychondritis may mimic something on the lung but it s nothing to worry about. She was then diagnosed with peneumonia and given meds for that. But she still has the cough. Prednisone seems to help a little, but we were told that she shouldn t be on it for a long period of time. She was also given mycophenolate to help her to get off of prednisone, but she does not want to take that medication anymore for reasons why any other person who has not been diagnosed with cancer would have. Also, her white blood count is higher than normal. We just want answers or for someone to care enough to take the time to exam her fully and properly diagnose her. We ve been doing through the back and forth for about 3 years now.