Potential cancer when pregnant life after thyroid lobectomy

Hey everyone, heres my story so far I am looking for ladies who have had partial thyroid removal and what life has been like afterwards.

I am 35 years old and it took me and my partner 3 years to conceive we have had many losses on our journey where some needed medical intervention whereas some didn’t. This is my 3rd baby but my partners first.

I found a lump at the base of my neck in February 2021, after mutiple ultrasound scans and fine needle aspirations the results are that the nodules are atypical, look suspicious (on scan) and the cells have certain characteristics that cancerous cells have my ent consultant said I had been put down as a 5/3/A (not 100% what that means) 

I have decided to have surgery to remove my left thyroid gland. I will be over 26 weeks pregnant when I have the surgery and I have spoken with my consultant (for pregnancy) and a local anaesthesist about surgery and what effects it would have on baby etc. 

My major worry is what my life will be like living with one thyroid gland. I have been told I won’t need medication and my remaining thyroid gland will take over and do the job that both previously did is this true? I am not great on medication (always seem to get the WORST side effects) so I would love to hear from ladies who have had a PT and what life has been like living with one thyroid gland and what changes (if any) they have noticed.

Thank you for reading I know it is a long post ️

  • Hello, 

     

    I am waiting to hear if I am to have half my thyroid out too. It's looking very likely. I worry about this too and how life will be after. My cousin had her whole thyroid removed and it's a year later and her medication hasn't yet been balanced enough for her to feel good. I think it's hard for us to guess what life might be like as I think it really is case by case. 
     

    I really do wish you all the best. I can't imagine how worrying this must be on top of pregnancy xx 

  • Hi 

    That is my one and only concern about the surgery as I feel me and baby will be well looked after however I don't want my quality of life to be worse than I am now with only one thyroid gland. I really hope some people on here have had similar experiences and can share how they got on. Good luck with everything. 

  • I had my whole thyroid removed, so a bit of a different situation, but I had no problems whatsoever on the medication. Wouldn't even know the difference. I worried about the side effects and the possibility I might be one of the people who had difficulty getting the medication right too and there was no need for me to. 

  • Thank you so much for your reply and its refreshing to hear a positive outcome after reading such awful ones. This is what I mainly worry about is the medication if I would need it and if my levels were off and hard to get right so thank you for sharing your experience. 

  • It was probably my main worry too and unfortunately, you are always going to hear more about the negative outcomes because people tend to talk about the things they are having difficulty with and not the things that worked out fine. (I need to remember this myself sometimes!)

  • I 100% agree with this as the thyroid groups I am in are all posts about bad experiences they are having with there levels being off. I am due a phone call with a nurse to discuss medication and I am also unsure if I should now wait until after my pregnancy to have the surgery if I still need it. Again thank you for taking the time to read and reply to me it means alot. Thanks again. X 

  • If there's anything else you want to ask or talk about, feel free to do so. I know how scary it is. I was freaking about the possibility of difficulty with the meds and some other things in the lead up to my operation. Literally none of them happened.

    If it's any reassurance, my ENT said most people feel no different on the medication, that it's a minority that have problems.

  • Thank you so much for writing back to me again. Yes I am totally freaking out about the medication side of it all think its maybe because its getting closer and I want to feel like myself afterwards with one thyroid.

    By this do you mean your ENT meant that the medication generally doesn't have side effects would you say its more the thyroid levels themselves if they are off? 

     

  • I think he meant most people don't have any problems at all, that the medication works fine and people feel just as they did when they had a thyroid. I never felt any different. 

  • Thank you for confirming this I am sure it is quite rare for people to not get on with the medication but from what I was reading they had other health issues on top of thyroid. Thanks again you have reassured me and I will definitely discuss this with my ENT.