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Thyroid nodule

V5ashmum
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Hi  

I'm 32 years old mum of 2.

For the last year or so I've had pain in the left side of my neck and collarbone.

The pain is quite hard to pin point but mostly around my glands and behind that if that makes sense

The pain feels like a throbbing sensation almost like someone squeezing your neck very tight but just in that area.

I went to the doctors about this who then referred me for a X-ray, bloods and ultrasound sound.

X-ray came back fine, bloods ok just low in iron and ultrasound showed I had a small nodule measuring 1mm.

I was told a ultrasound would be done again to see if any changes had happened.

during this time the pain in the left side had got worse and seemed to come and go more often, I also found that the pain would happen more when I was hot weirdly but no more collarbone pain! 

so recently had another ultrasound which showed that the module has grown and is now at 3mm. But have been told that the nodule is just sitting on the side of my thyroid gland I can now feel exactly where it is.

so I didn't get any answers about what could be causing this horrible uncomfortable pain in the left side of my neck and also told me that I'll have another scan in six months time to see any changes. 
The dr seemed very blasé about it all so still abit worried about what it could be am I just being a hypochondriac!!!! 
He also told me 2 lymph nodes where 8mm each in size on the eighth side of my neck.

I am offended getting sore throats and my mum also had to have part her thyroid gland removed as she had a benign lump when she was younger.

I've also had a auntie who had nose and throat cancer.

I suppose I just wanted to know really is this worth worrying about and should I ask to see another doctor or calm down and wait the six months! 
♥️

  • Hello and thank you for your post.

    If you are not reassured by what your doctor has said to you, or their plan to rescan you in 6 months it would be best to make another GP appointment to talk about things.

    Scan results are done by a radiologist (a specialist clinical doctor)  who may have recommended when you are scanned again. If there was a concern that something serious was going on then the report would have said that. So you may want to ask your doctor to explain results of your scan. 

    Unfortunately, it is not unusual to see cancer in families. So your auntie's cancer is unlikely to increase your chance of getting it too. This is because for most families, the risk of cancer is not passed down to other family members, particularly if they are not a close relative ( a close relative is your parent, brother or sister, and child).

    I hope this has been of some help. Please get back to us if you need any more information or support.  You may find it helpful to talk things through with one of the nurses on our helpline.  The number to call is Freephone 0808 800 4040 and the lines are open from 9am till 5pm Monday to Friday.

    Take care,

    Caroline

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    I'm not a nurse, but have had thyroid cancer and the odds are that there is little or nothing to worry about. This doesn't mean you are being a hypochondriac, just that there really is rarely any way to know from the symptoms whether a nodules is benign or malignant. 

    They usually do do a biopsy if there is any chance at all of cancer. When they don't do a biopsy after an ultrasound, it usually indicates that the ultrasound has shown that there is a very, very low risk of cancer. Even when the do follow up with a biopsy, the vast majority - over 90% - are not cancerous, so the ones that don't get biopsied are really very low risk.

    Nodules are extremely common. I think something ilke maybe 25% of people have them and I think the benign ones can cause the same symptoms as those that are malignant. It's also possible the pain is completely unrelated to the thyroid nodules. It is very common for a thryoid nodule to be found when investigating any problem in the neck area, simply because thyroid nodules are so common.

    3mm is also very small. My nodule was 10.5cm, so 105mm. Now, that was exceptionally large, but under 1cm is very small and I think that would be indicative of a low risk even if it were cancer, which they seem pretty confident it's not.

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