I spent the week between the biopsy and the result chanting "thyroid nodules are common, thyroid cancer is rare" to myself. I also researched everything I could about thyroid cancer so I knew that even if it was cancer, it was unlikely to be life-threatening.

The specialist said that given the size of my tumour, it was very likely it would have to be removed anyway, so...really in my case, being cancer just meant they'd be removing the full thyroid instead of half of it. Keeping in mind that thyroid cancer is very rarely life-threatening and rarely means a need for any ongoing treatment like chemotherapy is somewhat reassuring too. 

I am also a teacher, so my students kept me rather distracted.

That's not to say I wasn't worried. I was. Hence the chanting. But remember that I probably had about a 5% chance of cancer and that even if it was cancer, it would still really just mean having my thyroid removed was a help.