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Thyroid lump

Lucycatlady
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I'm 34, based in Bristol and I found a 3cm ish lump on my thyroid two weeks ago and called my GP. They asked me to come in straight away and confirmed it was a thyroid lump and took some bloods and referred me on the 2 week wait to the hospital.

I had an appointment on Monday in the ENT department (1 week and 6 days after my referral). I was hoping to get some answers but I didn't get what I was expecting. I was seen by the registrar who had a feel, had a look at my vocal chords and said I would need to have an ultrasound scan but I would have to wait for that (I thought that was what I was going in for). He did say that my thyroid function tests were normal. 

I'm now waiting for my ultrasound appointment to be booked. It's a struggle as I am now unlikely to know anything until next year and it's quite a weight on my mind. 

What wait have others had to deal with and how quickly am I likely to know when I do have my ultrasound? 

 

Lucy

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    I have no idea how long the wait will be as I am in Ireland and wait times are completely different over here (generally a lot longer). However, I had thyroid cancer so there are some things I can tell you. The first is just a word of warning and probably not what you want to hear, but the ultrasound may not tell you much. It is very common for the doctors to decide after the ultrasound that you need a biopsy. This does not mean they think it is anything sinister. Just that the ultrasound hasn't given them enough information to tell. Of course, it might be that in your case, an ultrasound would pretty much rule out anything serious, but I think a very high proportion of nodules go on to be biopsied and most still turn out to be harmless.

    The vast majority of thyroid lumps are completely harmless and even in the absolute worst case scenario, well, the way my consultant put it is "it's not the worst case in the world." At our age, the survival rate for thyroid cancer is so high that it sounds ridiculous to even call it a survival rate. I think it's well over 99%. And they don't usually use chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Worst case scenario is probably the removal of your thyroid.

    I had a very large cancerous nodule. The nodule was 10.5cm and the cancerous tumour was 6.7cm. There was also spread to 8 lymph nodes. Now, even the absolute worst case scenario in your case will be less than that, as your nodule is clearly under 4cm - over 4cm is more serious. 

    In my case, I had my thyroid and all the lymph nodes at one side removed and was in hospital for a week. I went back to work after a month and the only changes to my life were that I now have to take two tablets every morning and I have some tingling in my neck occasionally.

    I had radioiodine treatment the following May (operation was in January of 2020), but that is just a nuisance. It's basically just a matter of swallowing a capsule. The annoying thing is that you are radioactive after it so you have to limit contact with others, especially vulnerable people like children or pregnant woment but it doesn't hurt or make you sick or anything like that. Plus, this was done because I am at higher risk for recurrance due to the size of the nodule and spread to lymph nodes.

    And this is absolute worst case scenario. The odds are the lump is completely benign and harmless.

  • Offline in reply to MargaretMary

    Thanks for you reply and for sharing your experience with me. I have done all of the reading and am pretty comfortable with any of the outcomes. It's just feels so difficult in this 'not knowing phase'. 

    It's good for me to prepare myself that the scan might not give me the answer either. I wonder whether I would then have another wait to book the biopsy and I guess then the results? 

     

  • Offline in reply to Lucycatlady

    Yeah, it's quite likely there would be another wait. Again, it may be different and is probably quicker, in the UK, but I went for the results of my ultrasound and was told by my GP that they had recommended a biopsy and that she would put through a referral. She also said there was nothing to suggest cancer. I think your system is more integrated, so you may not have the same wait times.

    I got the results of the biopsy a week after that was done. It was about a month from the ultrasound to the biopsy, I think.

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