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High Chance of Thyroid Cancer. Nodule being removed in two weeks time

Maas
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Hi everyone,

It seems cancer is appearing more and more unfortunately and me at 38 might be one more case :(.

In the begining of March by pure chance a 7mm nodule with irregularity, microcalcifications and vascularity was found in the right lobe of my Thyroid. There was an urgent referral to do an FNA and today 12th of April, I finally heard the results from the ENT (saw an ENT first that asked for the FNA and now saw another specialist in Thyroid that told me the results).

In essence the Ultrasound describes the nodule as level 5, and the FNA gives 30% chance of being cancerous. The nodule if cancerous according to the doctor is a T1a.

My doctor immediately said, we need to do surgery to remove the right lobe of the thyroid and you will be healed without nothing else being needed. After receiving this kind of news, this last words were beautiful to hear. He said that the tissue will then go to be biopsied, and if it came back as non cancerous, I would be immediately discharged and I wouldn't see him again. If it came back as cancerous I would need to be seen by him for the next 3 years to see if there was any reoccurace and if nothing appeared, then I would be discharged.

He said I was really lucky to have catched this and that talking essentially saved my life (My job makes me talk alot, and it was this that led me to do an ultrasound since I was complaining with pain in the neck, that ended up being due to overstrain of the vocal cords that is causing pain in the muscles in the neck).

In essence and I never thought to be saying this, I need to thank my job... If not for this, this nodule would be developing in the thyroid without me knowing for years...

Hopefull all will go well in the surgery in two weeks time.

Thank you

  • Hi Maas and welcome to the Cancer Chat forum.

    I'm really sorry to hear about the nodule that's been found, and that it's most likely cancerous.

    This must have been very difficult to hear but I'm glad you can have surgery and I'm wishing you all the best with your operation in two weeks time.

    Hopefully some of our members who have been in a similar position will share their experiences and advice with you soon, but if you'd like to discuss anything further about your diagnosis or upcoming surgery with one of our cancer nurses, you can contact them on 0808 800 4040, Monday - Friday between 9a.m - 5p.m. They're very insightful and will do all they can to answer any questions you may have, and put your mind at ease about what's to come.

    Our community know how scary this time can be, so I hope it helps to know that we are here for you Maas and sending all our strength and support your way.

    Kind regards,

    Steph, Cancer Chat Moderator

  • Offline in reply to Moderator Steph

    Hi Steph,

    Thank you very much for your reply!

    The biggest anxiety I'm having is all the uncertainty since the two ultrasounds and one FNA, were not able to prove without the shadow of the doubts what type of nodule I got, if cancerous or bening, despite pending more to cancerous, there's always the hope of it being benign.

    The Ultrasound gave a Level 5 nodule but the FNA gave 30% probability. How much of the 7 and 8mm is cancerous? If just a little or more? I guess I will know when the lobe is removed.

    The other thing is the nodule was first detected on the 4th of March and I did another ultrasound on the 26th where the FNA was done and the size on both ultrasounds was the same, this is good isn't it? 

    One question to all please, I don't know about time frames, but from detection on the 4th of March to surgery on the 25th of April, is it a good time frame and it's inside the period to have a surgery? I'm "freaking" out by the time passing and having this inside of me.

    I'm doing everything inside a Private Insurance since I tried to go to the NHS and firstly I couldn't even get a GP appointment, tried several times calling, online and even made queue and talking with the receptionist that I needed an urgent referral to do an FNA, I was told I would need to try to book the GP appointment another day.

    I still feel really lucky to have a private insurance that is allowing me to be seen privately and with a great Thyroid Specialist. But it's truly, truly sad, I feel if I had gone via the NHS, by now I would still be waiting... :(

    Thank you

    Marco

  • Offline in reply to Maas

    Hi. I had thyroid cancer five years ago and...assuming it is papillary thyroid cancer that you have, the odds are high that time isn't a big deal and you are getting it done quickly anyway. I had a 10.5cm nodule of which 6.7cm was cancerous and I had my surgery about 6 weeks or so after diagnosis but that was because, in the words of the endocrinologist, "it's not going to do anything in the immediate future but psychologically, it's probably better to deal with it as soon as possible." And yeah, if yours is only 7mm or 8mm, it's less than 1/10th of the size of mine. Your nodule is tiny.

    Most forms of thyroid cancer are very slow acting and at your age, the survival rate is well over 99% for papillary thyroid cancer. The odds of spread outside the neck is like 1%-4%. I'm...not even sure there IS a time period, but if there is, it would certainly be longer than a couple of months.

    I had the lump on my neck for...I'd say at least 5 years before it was diagnosed. I didn't notice anything but now, looking at photographs, it is visible that far back. And it still wasn't really a big deal. I mean, by the standards of cancer. It was really just a matter of removing my thyroid and all the lymph nodes at one side. It was never life threatening or anything like that.

  • Offline in reply to MargaretMary

    Hi Margaret,

    Thank you very much for your words

    Indeed, I was lucky to find this nodule in such an early stage and small, the nodule has microcalcifications that for what I saw is extremely common with papillary, but the FNA came inconclusive with 30% chance so really not sure what I have, I'm banking that after removal it comes benign (fingers cross) and the Dr discharges me.  

    I thought about all those things, if I hadn't find this now due to the issues with my voice, for how long this would be there growing? Cancer is really a sneaky ***... I had a word with the speech therapist that also told me that if cancer from all them, it's the more curable one and for me not to worry. But it's always hard deep down not to worry, cancer is unpredictable. When this comes out I'll feel better, 8 days to go... Until then I'm keeping myself busy, doing my work and building Legos in my free time to relax 

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