Thyroid Nodules

I had to have an ultrasound as I was having a lot of pain around my thyroid gland now for 8 weeks.  On the ultrasound they found a few nodules but also one that was a lot bigger.  So they did an FNA of it on the 7th sept.  Yesterday I had an email to say that the biopsy was being sent for more in depth tests.  I'm going out of my mind with worry.  How long do these take to come back.  I'm so worried and my anxiety levels are through the roof.  

  • I'm sorry to hear this and recognise that worry. I had similar about 10 years ago. With all the scans and FNA they couldn't diagnose and so decided the best move was to remove the growth, half my thyroid and the lymph nodes surrounding.  Thankfully it was a benign follicular adenoma and the rest of my thyroid has kicked in so I don't have to take medication.

     

    the not knowing but is so anxiety inducing. Please be reassured that more test and analysis doesn't necessarily mean the news is bad. It just means they are doing everything they can to understand what is going on.  
     

    sending you all my positive thoughts and vibes

  • Please try not to worry. Even if it is cancer, and it probably isn't, thyroid cancer is usually a fairly mild form of cancer. The most common forms have close to 100% survival among younger people, younger being under about 50 or so, and chemotherapy and radiotherapy are very rarely used.

    I had thyroid cancer two years ago. I had my thyroid removed in January 2020 and that was basically that. I do now have to take medication for life but if that has had any effect on me, it's been positive - I seem to have a bit more energy and have lost about a stone in weight. I took a month off work for the operation, then went back to my normal life. Probably no worse an experience than say having your appendix removed. And I had a very large tumor - 6.7cm - and there was spread to 8 lymph nodes. So even if you do have cancer, it is likely to be lower risk than mine.

    I did have to have radioiodine treatment to reduce the risk of reoccurrence, but that was just annoying. It wasn't painful or uncomfortable or anything, just took time.

  • I've just had a call to say that my specialist hasn't had the results back yet but wants to see me on the 25th sept to discuss the next steps.  I'm spiralling

  • My results have come back as suspicious of cancer so they are urgently referring me to a southampton cancer specialist

  • Sorry to hear that. You never want to be hear any form of cancer is likely, but they do say that if you HAD to have cancer but could choose the type, thyroid cancer would be the one to choose.

    Feel free to ask if there is anything you want to know about my experience. The worst part was the worry really. Other than that, I had a pretty unpleasant 12 hours after the operation but that was the effects of the anaesthetic, which I was warned to expect as I get travel sick and apparently, the anaesthetic can affect people in the same way, so if you don't suffer from travel sickness, that probably won't affect you (and by unpleasant, I mean feeling nauseous for about 12 hours so hardly that big a deal) and I was pretty tired for a few days and that was about it.

    Well, for about a month, I couldn't lift anything too heavy, had a bit of a stiff neck and my voice got weak after talking for long. I am a teacher, so that is why I took the month of work; I need to be able to speak loudly and to turn my head. Even when I first went back to work, there were a couple of weeks when calling the kids to come in from the yard when break was over was difficult because my voice was quite loud enough for the classroom, but not for calling across the yard. The kids were running over, calling, "Miss says it's time to come in." If I'd been working in an office, I could probably have gone back to work after two or three weeks.

    Best of luck with your treatment.