Thankyou so much for sharing your experience. I can totally empathise with you because I'm building up the same scenario in my head. It's easy to say not to but you really can't stop the thoughts creeping in. 
 

im relieved to hear yours in benign. Must be such a relief. Let's hope I can join you. I will defo take a note book! Such a good idea 

Really glad to hear your results were good, liverpool123.

I've had thyroid cancer and truthfully, it's not as bad as you might be imagining. Not that it is particularly likely you have thyroid cancer - I think over 90% of nodules are completely benign. But even in the worst case scenario, all that it meant in my case really was an operation. Not pleasant but not life-altering either.

I had my mum with me when I was diagnosed and I must say I was grateful for that. If you can't have somebody with you because of covid, maybe go with somebody and have them wait in the car or meet you afterwards.

I can tell you how my situation went. I had an FNA and then a week later, I had an appointment to get my results. The doctor basically told me, "we found malignancies" and when I expressed dismay, said, "ah, it's not the worst case in the world." Almost immediately after that appointment (and by this I mean well within the hour), I was called to go across to the hospital and have a CT scan.

I had an operation maybe 6 weeks after being diagnosed to remove my thyroid but this was before we were in a pandemic, so it may well be more time now. I had lymph nodes removed as well as my thyroid so I was in hospital nearly a week. It was pretty boring, especially as I felt pretty much fine by the 4th or 5th day.

I was off work for about a month, but that was largely because I'm a teacher and needed both to be able to turn my head quickly and to be able to raise my voice (not to yell at students, but just...well, even after I did go back, I had difficult calling across the yard when on duty).

The medication had no negative effects whatsoever. I feel just the same as I did before my thyroid was removed.

Oh, before the operation, they did a second FNA on a lymph node to see if it was likely they would need removing.

Then about 5 months after my operation, I had radio-iodine treatment. This was a bit annoying because of the restrictions before and after and I found the whole body iodine scan a little worrying as there was that fear that they might find spread outside the neck. It's unlikely, but you still panic a bit when awaiting the results.

As you are a nurse, you probably already knew some or all of this and it's very likely it won't be relevant to you anyway, but I'm saying it for what it's worth. Feel free to ask if there's anything else I can tell you. Though again, as a nurse, you likely know more than I do, but some things are still more a matter of being experienced.

Hi margaretmay

Have you had any side effects from having the lymph nodes out? My consultant had said it's likely they will remove my thyroid and 30-40 lymph nodes on the right hand side. He's said we have 100-150 in our necks so there's still enough afterwards.

Thank you.

E. 

No effects at all, except my neck gets a bit...well, a sort of numby feeling sometimes. I had something like 58 lymph nodes removed and it doesn't seem to have created any problems!

Sorry to hear you have to have this done. Best of luck with everything and feel free to ask if there is anything else I can tell you.