Quote:
Originally Posted by phetaroi
I would not jump to any conclusions at all. Just wait for the result.
I had to have half my thyroid removed about ten years ago because one nodule had gotten so large it was actually affecting swallowing...but no cancer. I still have nodules that are checked every other year. No cancer. More than half of healthy people have thyroid nodules.
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Most people in their 60s and 70s have nodules. Mine first appeared in my forties. I had them biopsied and forgot about them afterward. Ten years later, I saw my neck was swelling, moreso on the right than the left. Then I noticed the swelling had become hard to the touch, like a rock. Since I avoid doctors out of pure anxiety, I ignored it until the day came when I came up a lot of steps out of the subway and found myself gasping for breath.
To shorten the tale, I broke down, went to a doctor who sent me for another biopsy then to an endocrinologist, who did an ultrasound and said my thyroid was enlarged and choking me and it would have to be removed. By then I gasped when I spoke. Arrangements were made. I went in for the surgery.
They woke me up within the hour, told me that when they opened my neck, it was filled with what looked like white cement growing off my thyroid, wrapped around my carotid artery, and squeezing and bending my trachea, which is why I couldn't breathe. They could not separate it from the thyroid. They had no idea what this was, so they cut seven pieces of the stuff and sent it to the Mayo clinic and closed me up.
For ten days I waited, Googling, of course, and finding something called anaplastic carcinoma, which, if it was that, meant I had about four months to live. I finally got the call, went to see my endo, and he started reading to me from the Mayo Clinic report. I could see the second page hanging down, and in the middle of the page, I read, "No malignancies were found in any of the samples submitted."
The doctor said, "It is either Hashimoto's Fibrosing Variant, a rare inflammatory form of Hashimoto's, or Reidel's, which is usually also found in other parts of the body." He said, "Since Reidel's looks like wood and Hashimoto's Fibrosing looks like cement, I think you have the latter. It is treated with drugs, not surgery."
Relieved, I said, "I admit I was Googling, and I was afraid of anaplastic carcinoma." He said, "So was I."
It was treated initially with high doses of prednisone followed by a few years of Tamoxifen, the drug used to treat breast cancer, even though it wasn't cancer. I eventually was weaned off the Tamoxifen, and the stuff has never returned. That started in 2013. I have ultrasounds and biopsies every few years. The nodules are still there, but they have shrunk.
A paper has been written about my thyroid. I understand that out of the ten papers presented at the Thyroid Association, my thyroid was found to be the most fascinating. To my dismay, the narrative opens with, "An obese Caucasian woman, 55, presented with an enlarged goiter..."
OP, you can't guess yourself what you've got. Wait and see what the doctor says. The cancer I found Googling is rare and usually happens in older people. Most thyroid cancers are very treatable. Most nodules are not cancerous.
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