Whats going on with my thyroid?
Don’t sweat it right now. Take comfort in the fact that: – many, many people get thyroid nodules – 95-99% of all unilateral solitary thyroid nodules are NOT cancerous – getting a fine needle aspiration is normal procedure for evaluation a nodule. IF it is cancerous, take comfort in knowing that the most common type of thyroid cancer, comprising of ~3/4 of all thyroid cancers, has a high cure rate and low rate of metastasis. Also, the second most common type of thyroid cancer, while having a higher chance of metastasis, has an even higher cure rate. Surgery is indicated in both cases, and usually results in complete removal of the thyroid gland. Overall, the two most common types of thyroid cancer make up something like 90-95% of all cases of thyroid cancer, and the cure rates are anywhere from 85-95%, depending on type and age. Short version: don’t sweat it. As Mamet awkwardly wrote, “worrying is like paying interest on a debt that never comes due.” Also: I’m not an endocrinologist, an
Two people I know have had growths on their thyroid in the past year. My next-door neighbour had a cancerous lump right on top of her thyroid, had it removed and received three courses of chemo. She’s officially in remission now and the only complication was some minor damage to her vocal cords, which has been fixed via day surgery. A good friend has just had a non-cancerous growth removed. She noticed it about a year ago when she started coughing in the night as the lump pressed into her throat. She said it felt like something stuck in her throat, a constant feeling of something alternately tickling or blocking her throat. It didn’t impede her breathing but was an annoyance, especially with the coughing at night, so she had it removed last month with no ill effects. She has a four-inch (or so) scar at the base of her neck and a scar on the side of her chest where a drain was put in, but she’s already much better.
I had thyroid cancer 9 years ago. If it’s cancer — and you’ll hear this all the time, so I might as well be the first — it’s the cancer you want to have. Except for the subtype that killed Rehnquist (which you do not have, because it’s an end-stage cancer seen in much older patients), it’s the most survivable cancer out there. This is because it tends to be quite slow moving — it can literally take years before it goes anywhere near a lymph node, for example. (My own doctors estimated that I’d actually had my cancer for as much as 8 years before I finally got diagnosed, and my tumor had only just started to look like it could spread.) The treatment is to remove your thryoid (relatively quick surgery — less than 2 hours), get a dose of radioactive iodine (gold standard of thyroid cancer treatment for 50+ years — chemotherapy isn’t necessary and doesn’t really work on the thyroid anyway), and take thyroid replacement hormone daily for the rest of your life (easy: just put the pills
My mother had a thyroid tumour when I was 10. She had it (the tumour and the gland) removed soon after it was diagnosed, but the doctor said it had probably been there for several years. Anyway, it was benign, and apparently pretty huge. After the operation she had some paralysis on that side of her face for awhile and the scar was big, but it’s all fine now and you wouldn’t notice that she’d had anything done there unless you really looked. Good luck!
Something very similar happened to me about two years ago. Out of nowhere a huge lump appeared on my neck and my first thought was cancer. After tests that sound similar to yours, it turned out it was a very large benign nodule that had taken over one side of my thyroid (my Ear Nose Throat doc said it was the largest she has seen). Long story short, she did an outpatient thyroid lobectory and removed the half of my thyroid that contained the nodule. Other than a really gruesome incision that took a while to heal, I made a full recovery with no side effects. My doc explained that for most people, the remaining half of the thryroid takes up the slack, but suggested I get tested for hypothyroidism anually just to be sure. Anyway, email is also in my profile if you’d like more detail.
