I've had thyroid cancer and I can give a certain amount of reassurance.

Firstly, be very careful of googling. There is a lot of inaccurate information online. I googled the whole thing a lot and found completely contradictory information. Anything that says it's "probably cancer," I'd be wary of. I don't actually know what the odds are, but I doubt they could say that with any degree of certainty.

Thyroid nodules are extremely common. I think something like 25% or 40% of the population will develop one and many are found incidentally when scanning for something else, as yours was. It's also not uncommon to have swollen lymph nodes as something like an infection could do that, so I really doubt it's anywhere close to certain that you have thyroid cancer.

And finally, even if you do, it probably isn't how you are imagining. The most common forms of thyroid cancer have a really high survival rate, so high that calling it a "survival rate" sounds kind ridiculous. I am talking something like over 99% among under 50s (and it's high for over 50s too, just not quite as high and I haven't paid as much attention to that as I'm not in that category). It also rarely requires ongoing treatment like chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Normally, they remove your thyroid and that is more or less that. If they think you are at higher risk for recurrence, they will do radioiodine treatment, but that is just a nuisance as you have to isolate afterwards because you are radioactive, but it's not painful or something that makes you sick or anything.

My experience went like this. I was diagnosed in November 2019. I had my operation on the 6th of January 2020. It was a larger than normal operation as the nodule was very large and they also removed all the lymph nodes on one side of my neck.

I took a month off work and was back at work and back to normal life really by early February. My voice did get weak if I used it too much and I still get some tingling in my neck, but nothing serious. 

I also have to take medication to do the job my thyroid used to, but that is just swallowing two pills each morning.

I was supposed to get radioiodine treatment in March or April, but covid set in and it ended up being done at the end of May. This was somewhat irritating as I had to go on a low iodine diet for two weeks before it and then there were restrictions on me for two weeks afterwards, but that was all. The treatment itself was just swallowing a capsule. I did get a nosebleed a week and a half afterwards but that was it for effects.

Hi margaret mary

Thanks so much for your reassuring reply. It is great to know that you've been through that and Are ok Now. I really need to stop googling it never makes me feel any better. The doctor said the swollen lymph node could be because I've had some sort of reactive arthritis recently. Did you have any symptoms before? I'm wondering if it's why I have been so tired for a long time and a lot of other symptoms I have no answers for 

Nope, no symptoms at all. Just went to the doctor about a completely unrelated issue and he said "has that cyst on your neck ever been checked out?" I was like "what cyst?" because I hadn't even noticed it. So yeah, it was entirely out of the blue.

I know any possibility of cancer is terrifying, but even if you do have it (and you probably don't), I've read that if you had to have cancer but could choose the type, thyroid cancer would be the one to choose. I mean, yeah, that is still choosing the least worst option, but it is a lot different to what one imagines when one hears "cancer treatment."

I actually only told a small number of people it was cancer, because it makes it sound so much more dramatic than it is. I told my mother and siblings the full story, obviously and my boss and the head of my department and one other colleague who was best friends with the head of my department, as I didn't want to make things awkward, but just told the rest of my colleagues and most of my friends that I had to have my thyroid removed as there was a cyst on it that could create problems if it grew any bigger.