Hey, I had thyroid cancer two years ago so I can give you some reassurance here.

Firstly, enlarged lymph nodes and thyroid issues are both incredibly common and in most cases will not be cancer. Thyroid nodules are very common and are often found when an ultrasound on the neck is done for another reason, so it is very likely your lymph node is just swollen because of an infection or something and you have a nodule on your thyroid which was found during the ultrasound.

Thyroid cancer is also less common in men, like three quarters of cases are in women.

And absolute worst case scenario, if it is thyroid cancer, well, in the words of my consultant when he diagnosed me, "it's not the worst situation in the world." It really isn't. The most common forms of thyroid cancer have something like a 99% or higher survival rate at your age. Some of the websites will just say "nearly 100%".

Nor is it treated in the ways cancer usually is. They very rarely use chemotheraphy or radiotherapy. They generally just remove your thyroid and then you have to take medication for life. This is usually just a matter of taking a couple of tablets each morning and then going about your life as normal. Some people do have difficulty with getting the dose right, but those are a minority. I took a month off for my operation and would probably have taken slightly less except I am a teacher and really needed both to be able to turn my head quickly and to be able to make myself heard above gangs of teenagers! I joked with a few colleagues that I'd have come back a few days earlier if it wasn't for my one really difficult class where I needed eyes on the back of my head, never mind being able to turn it easily!

I will add that in my case, I had a nodule that was 10.5cm and the cancerous part was 6.7cm. There was also spread to 8 lymph nodes. If you have cancer, which is unlikely, it sounds like you might have spread to lymph nodes (makes little difference with thryoid cancer) but your nodule is certainly far smaller than mine was since nothing was seen until they did an ultrasound.

If you have thyroid cancer, it is possible that some weeks or months after the operation, they might want to do radioiodine treatment to prevent reccurrence. This just means swallowing a tablet and does not hurt or make you feel sick or anything. The only issue is that you are radioactive after it and there are restrictions on being around other people, especially small kids, in case the radioactivity affects them. Given that your children are too young for you to be able to tell them to remain at least two feet away from you for two or three weeks, it might be best if you went to stay with a friend of family member for a couple of weeks after this treatment, if you need it. If you do, the doctors will advise on this anyway.

Whatever is wrong, it is probably less serious than my situation and I was sick for maybe three days from the anaesthetic, then went back to my life as normal. If it's any reassurance, I walked half an hour from the train station to the hospital about eleven days after the operation when I went to get my stitches out.

Hey, I had thyroid cancer two years ago so I can give you some reassurance here.

Firstly, enlarged lymph nodes and thyroid issues are both incredibly common and in most cases will not be cancer. Thyroid nodules are very common and are often found when an ultrasound on the neck is done for another reason, so it is very likely your lymph node is just swollen because of an infection or something and you have a nodule on your thyroid which was found during the ultrasound.

Thyroid cancer is also less common in men, like three quarters of cases are in women.

And absolute worst case scenario, if it is thyroid cancer, well, in the words of my consultant when he diagnosed me, "it's not the worst situation in the world." It really isn't. The most common forms of thyroid cancer have something like a 99% or higher survival rate at your age. Some of the websites will just say "nearly 100%".

Nor is it treated in the ways cancer usually is. They very rarely use chemotheraphy or radiotherapy. They generally just remove your thyroid and then you have to take medication for life. This is usually just a matter of taking a couple of tablets each morning and then going about your life as normal. Some people do have difficulty with getting the dose right, but those are a minority. I took a month off for my operation and would probably have taken slightly less except I am a teacher and really needed both to be able to turn my head quickly and to be able to make myself heard above gangs of teenagers! I joked with a few colleagues that I'd have come back a few days earlier if it wasn't for my one really difficult class where I needed eyes on the back of my head, never mind being able to turn it easily!

I will add that in my case, I had a nodule that was 10.5cm and the cancerous part was 6.7cm. There was also spread to 8 lymph nodes. If you have cancer, which is unlikely, it sounds like you might have spread to lymph nodes (makes little difference with thryoid cancer) but your nodule is certainly far smaller than mine was since nothing was seen until they did an ultrasound.

If you have thyroid cancer, it is possible that some weeks or months after the operation, they might want to do radioiodine treatment to prevent reccurrence. This just means swallowing a tablet and does not hurt or make you feel sick or anything. The only issue is that you are radioactive after it and there are restrictions on being around other people, especially small kids, in case the radioactivity affects them. Given that your children are too young for you to be able to tell them to remain at least two feet away from you for two or three weeks, it might be best if you went to stay with a friend of family member for a couple of weeks after this treatment, if you need it. If you do, the doctors will advise on this anyway.

Whatever is wrong, it is probably less serious than my situation and I was sick for maybe three days from the anaesthetic, then went back to my life as normal. If it's any reassurance, I walked half an hour from the train station to the hospital about eleven days after the operation when I went to get my stitches out.

Hello thanks for the reply has put my mind at ease a little 

what makes it worse I suffer from bad anxiety at times I feel like a idiot for over reacting as soon as I walked  out of scan room I've got all these symptoms Neck pain etc felt fine before I walked in just hoping its nothing bad  thanks again 

It's quite easy to imagine symptoms if you are thinking about them. And thyroid cancer doesn't usually cause any symptoms so they aren't really concerning anyway.

The odds are it's nothing and even in the worst case scenario, well, I don't think thyroid cancer is really much worse in a lot of cases than say, having your appendix out. Not exactly a pleasant situation, but unlikely to reduce your life expectancy or cause you long term difficulty.

Thank you for help. And. Reassurance  means a a lot