Hi Darren,  I am sorry to hear about it.

They probably want to have more clear idea on what they are dealing with, how much it spread and if there are any more nodules.  Don't think too much into that.

Thyroid cancer usually doesn't show up in blood tests.

I am wishing you good luck with surgery and quick recovery 

Hi all

Thanks for reply, I met the surgeon today and he said the exact same thing that he wants to see the structure of my throat and not to worry about it because as soon as I get the thyroidectomy the cancer should be gone as thyroid cancer is more of an annoyance that anything else. 

My mind is at ease now thanks.

Hi Missymay, glad to you hear that you are well and healthy! I am due for surgery in a few weeks to remove half of my thyroid following discovery of a 2-3cm nodule and biopsy results being unclear. I can see that it had affected your voice which they say is expected, but more of what I wanted to ask is as recovery and followup

- do you get regular blood tests to check thyroid levels, and if so are you taking thyroid medication?

- do you get your calcium levels checked regularly following surgery?

Just wanted to know what your/ or anybody elses experience has looked like in the long term and in terms of follow up with hospital/doctors appointments etc.

thank you

Hi. Hope you don't mind me jumping in here, as I have also had thyroid cancer. I am in Ireland though and our health service is rather different so not everything may be the same, appointment wise and so on. Covid also hit in two months after my operation so my appointments weren't totally normal

My voice was weak for a few weeks after the operation but that was all. Was a bit difficult on occasion as I am a teacher. Had students running around the yard with "Miss says you're to come in now," 'cause I couldn't make myself heard across the whole yard! Was one slightly funny moment. I got a cough when I talked too much for a month or two after the operation and like I said, covid was setting in around that time, so I was on the train home one day and started coughing as I'd been reading to a class. It was a weird sort of cough, different from any cough I've ever had before and I was thinking I probably freaked people on the train. At that point, you did not want to hear anybody coughing, let alone an unfamiliar cough!

I am taking thyroid medication. Absolutely fine. Noticed no change whatsoever on it. Might have lost a slight bit of weight, but that might be be coincidence/imagination.

Yeah, I get blood tests a few times a year. Not really sure because I had some follow up treatment - radioiodine treatment - and like I said, covid messed with my appointment schedule.

The calcium levels were a major example of that. I should have had my calcium levels checked about 8 weeks after the operation. Not regularly. It was just to see that they did return to normal - they dropped after the operation and I had to take calcium supplements for maybe 2 months. Once they were back to normal, they don't need to be checked any more, I don't think. However, that was JUST the start of the whole covid crisis and when I rang the doctor's, they were only taking urgent appointments which clearly, "my doctor thinks my calcium levels should be back to normal by now and I'm not having any symptoms as I was when they were low but I want them checked anyway just to be sure" kind of isn't. So it was about 5 or 6 months after the operation they were finally checked and pronounced fine.

Think they checked them daily in the hospital - I was there for nearly a week as I had lymph nodes removed as well as the thyroid - but after that, it was just "keep taking the tablets and you can start reducing them by one tablet each week. If you find yourself having problems, slow that down. And get your levels checked once you've stopped taking them to be sure they are OK."

Some people don't have problems with their calcium levels at all, so I guess they don't have to have them checked at all once they leave hospital. They are probably the majority.

Long term experience...has mostly been fine. It is stressful sometimes. There was a final whole body scan last March, 14 months after the original operation, to be sure everything was OK. It was, but it's a long wait.

Since then, I had a couple of appointments in April and now I have a scan in November, an appointment in December for results of that and stuff and an appointment next March about thyroid levels and so on. So a couple of times a year.

Also, I had the full thyroid removed.Half is a rather different thing. Sorry if some of this is not applicable. 

Hi Sham27,

I am sorry to hear you are going through this too, but please be aware that thyroid cancer is one of the easiest to cure if it turns out to be that, but this is always a scary time for us all for sure!

But rest assured if a lump or swollen nodule has been found it isn't always cancerous, it could just a benign lump.
My biopsy results were unclear, but my surgeon said that they can't tell for sure by scans, blood tests and sometimes in biopsies too, so the only way to be 100% sure is to have the Thyroid surgery.

I had my operation on the same day & same hospital as another lady, she was told the same as me in appointments before surgery. Her results came back after surgery as a non-cancerous lump, so I guess you could say that she didn't need to go through the operation, mine was cancerous and was about to metastasise (meaning it was about to spread beyond my Thyroid) so Thank goodness I went ahead and  I had it removed!!

Everyones outcome can be different, but I know it is nessesary to make sure. I didn't hesitate to go ahead with the operation rather than wait and keep checking, thank goodness I did!

To answer your questions.......

My strained voice only lasted a very short time, think it was less than a month, which is probably due to swelling pressing against my throat.

You will laugh at my coping strategies before operation and also in recovery........due to Covid lockdowns last year, I spent my time pre-operation really grafting in my garden doing to total renovation (Very hard work on a very overgrown garden) this kept me sane and kept my mind off it to a degree, I needed that.

My recovery was good, it is obviously very sore directly after surgery but day by day the pain eased and got less sore, so much better after having staples/stitches out!

You need a couple of weeks resting after the operation so it can heal, but I don't think I lasted that long before getting out and doing bits in garden again, after all I had to wait for results so still needed to keep my mind occupied again. It was sore to move my neck for a while until it all healed up.

.Blood tests.....

I had a blood test a couple or 3 months after operation and after a week they called me back in for another blood test as they found abnormallies, which worried me a lot!
The 2nd blood test showed my thyroid wasn't functioning, (I was worried that it had showed cancer again, so more worries) but it was due to my only 40% of thyroid left not doing the job, so I am now on Thyroid replacement medication which I will need to take for the rest of my life, plus I need to take calcium tablets for life too. I can cope with that, just don't want the cancer back.

My Hospital is very good at keeping check on me, with regular bloods ect, so I am confident all will be well looking into the future.

I am now a year post op, and there isn't any long term problems, scar is barely noticeable, and I bounced back really well afterwards so all is well. 
Tip for good scar healing....use a Good bio oil or scar oil/cream, it sure helped my scar to almost disappear 
If anyone asked me if it was worth going through the operation when you don't know if it is Nesesary, my answer would be YES....YES ....YES! I wanted it out of my body just in case and in my case I was right to have it done.

I am now Cancer free having it done early, also I didn't need radio therapy/Cancer treatment because it was contained inside my thyroid, I was so lucky I had it done sooner rather than later as it could of so easily be a totally different story!

I hope this helps you and any others who are going through this at the moment 

wishing you a all the very best

Missy x

Hi MargaretMary,

Sorry to hear about your experience but highly positive to hear that you have recovered well and this gives me some hope too. It's a shame that everything had occured in between the pandemic and put delays on the appointments etc!

I am hopeful that my long term recovery will be just as great, and I am hoping to get good results following surgery but will keep 'going with the flow' and take it a step at a time... I now have some idea of what will happen post surgery so a big thank you

Hi Missy,

Thank you for your reply :) yes the consultant has told me that it could possibly be benign, but surgery will rule out anything else so I am going with his suggestion of surgery... although I am super nervous as I have never had anything in the past... I'm just grateful that they have been super efficient from ultrasound to biopsy and now surgery within a matter of 8 weeks...

Really glad to hear that there aren't any major long term problems and your voice healed well over time. Keeping busy is a great coping mechanism- don't blame you for tackling that overgrown garden ha! I have been reading fiction as a bit of escapism for myself over these past few weeks! 

I have a family wedding a week after the op so really want to ensure that I rest up before then and recover well fingers crossed! Just reading your reply and everyone elses I can see that regular blood tests/appointments take part of that long term recovery process so that gives me peace of mind.

Yes I am hopeful that I have picked it up at an 'earlier' stage... but will see how things get on..

Thank you so much once again

Just out of curiosity has any one that had a full thyroid removal experienced any weight changes.

Not sure, to be honest. The scales says I've lost a bit of weigh since my operation, but my clothes still fit pretty much the same, so it might just be a case of a new weighing scales or just a matter of what time of the day I check it or whatever. Think I've lost a small bit of weight but whether that is directly due to thyroid removal or to stuff like having to alter my diet before the radio-iodine treatment and not going back on some things afterwards - stopped drinking hot chocolate pretty much completely as I got out of the habit of it over those two weeks and I stayed off chocolate for about 4-6 weeks.