Hi,

worth double checking with ultrasound department again and ensure that referal has been marked as urgent, as I thought there was a delay but it was just my GP wrongly referring me as routine 

They havent advised where the ultra sound would be so im not sure who to call, i messaged the GP this morning asking for the ultra sound dep details so i can call them

I know it's easier said than done, but try not to worry. Thyroid nodules are extremely common and the vast majority - I think it's about 95% - are completely benign. 

And I wouldn't say the fact that it's hard is bad news. Mine was hard and while it did turn out to be cancer, the doctors really did not seem to be expecting that. They said things like "well, there's nothing to suggest it is cancer, but we need to check just in case." I think there might be a higher chance of a hard nodule being cancerous than a soft one, though I'm not sure about that, but that still doesn't mean it's likely.

Whether benign or cancerous, it is very likely you wouldn't have any other symptoms. The odds are that won't tell you much.

But even if it is cancer and the odds are probably pretty strongly against it being, it's...well, the words of my consultant were something like "ah, it's not the worst situation in the world."

My experience was that I was diagnosed in November 2019, had my thyroid and all the lymph nodes on the left side of my neck removed on the 6th January, 2020 and was back at work a month later and...that was that. I was sick for two or three days because of the anaesthetic and I had a week weeks - maybe two months? - when my voice was a little weak, but that was about the worst of it. It wasn't really any worse than I'd imagine it would be to say have your appendix removed or your tonsils or your gallbladder or something.

Among younger people (under about 50), the most common form of thyroid cancer has a near 100% survival rate and they very rarely use ongoing treatments like chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Even if you do have cancer, the odds are that removing your thyroid will sort it out.

And if the nodule is causing problems, it's likely they'll remove part of it anyway, even if it's benign, so the difference between a cancerous nodule and a benign one might one really be how much of the thyroid is removed and whether you have to have scans and blood tests at regular intervals afterwards to be sure there is no reccurrance.

Thank you so much for your reply, i am so glad everything worked out for you :-) 

Gives me some reassurance :-) x

ultra sound called with a cancellation appointment for 3.30 today

do they tell you there and then if they think its sinister? 

No, and they won't be able to tell from the ultrasound if it's sinister. The odds are that they will send the results to your doctor and then your doctor will refer you for a biopsy. There are a small number of cases where the ultrasound can indicate cancer is so unlikely that there is no need for a biopsy, but those are uncommon. In most cases, they aren't going to know much for certain without a biopsy.

I had a GP's appointment for a week after the ultrasound and was basically told there was nothing on it to indicate it was cancer, but they still needed to do a biopsy. That is common.

Even if they did find high risk features, I would imagine it would be your GP or another doctor that would tell you that and with the majority, it's unlikely they'll know more than "cancer is unlikely but can't be ruled out. A referral for a biopsy is recommended."