Thyroid Cancer
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After a 7 week wait (and my BMX) I finally had my thyroid biopsy today. It wasn't nearly as bad as my breast biopsies but I feel like I've been strangled in a dark alley! Results will take about a week.
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It’s good that both the BMX and thyroid biopsy are over. I love your crime scene analogy. If you end up needing surgery you will look like your throat has been slashed for a while. I could have worn scarves to hide the gash but didn’t bother. Thanks to Embrace silicone scar therapy my scar is nearly invisible now. I hope you get good news in a week
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maggiehopley, wishing you a definitively benign biopsy result! Keep us posted.
Yes, ugh, various moments of thyroid biopsy and surgery healing made me feel similar stressful sensations of pressure or tightness in the front of the neck sometimes, randomly causing a feeling a little bit like strangulation, ugh.
One time while I still had a big scary-looking new thyroidectomy (& neck lymph node dissection) scar and was at the same time extremely hypothyroid ahead of radioactive iodine treatment, there happened to be a zombie apocalypse flashmob gathering in a nearby neighborhood. I think if I had not felt quite so exhausted and vulnerable and thus crowd-shy, I could have fit in with the "zombies" just as I was, no costume or theatrical makeup needed, what with my then-angry reddish neck gash, along with my greyish-pale, undead-looking complexion...
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It's good news- benign follicular nodule. I might still have to have it removed if it grows larger, but at least I'm okay for now. Thank you all for your support!
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maggiehopley: I'm glad your biopsy was benign. Even if you do need surgery in the future you won't have to deal with healing from your BMX at the same time. All the best!
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I had lobular breast cancer almost 3 years ago. Had DMX and radiation, where my esophagus was burned, then tamoxifen and letrozole.
Had ultrasound today for a suspicious thyroid nodule.
Report: There is a suspicious nodule at the upper pole of the right thyroid lobe measuring 9 mm along with multiple suspicious left-sided cervical lymph nodes ranging up to 14 mm. These contain punctate echogenic foci and are concerning for metastatic disease. Recommend fine-needle aspiration of the largest left cervical lymph node.
It is so frustrating to be starting this all over again. Need to have biopsy and meeting with surgeon next week. Being back on this board makes it a little easier.
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momof2winsplus: Sorry that you have to undergo the biopsy and worry about what the results will be. I have had two benign biopsies. Four years ago most of my thyroid was removed because it was enlarging and compressing my trachea. The small piece left has started to grow again and is deviating my trachea. They are monitoring my airway with ultrasounds since I am supposed to avoid being intubated if possible.
And radiation esophagitis, too! I had an upper GI bleed from erosive esophagitis and was diagnosed with Barrett’s esophagus. My RO made sure my esophagus was not in the portal but I ended out with radiation induced lung injury instead. I never imagined there were so many variations on possible side effects. I hope things work out well
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Hi momof2winsplus, sending you strength and hugs and support. So sorry that you have to deal with workup for suspicious thyroid nodules and neck lymph nodes. All the best on fine needle aspiration (FNA) node biopsy. In my experience, both my FNA biopsies (of thyroid nodule and neck node) felt quite weird, but they were much less painful than my breast biopsy. (I compared the two experiences, thyroid vs. breast biopsy, in a previous post above.)
I also want to reassure you overall that if it does end up being thyroid cancer lymph node metastases, that thyroid cancer is overwhelmingly quite curable, and that node mets are very common in thyca (>50% of us) and are much less detrimental or escalatory to treatment than node mets when they occur with breast cancer, for example.
Personally, I had thyroidectomy and lymph node removal for thyroid cancer nine-plus years ago at 43, and have been happily free of (that) disease after the one surgery plus one dose of radioactive iodine at that time. It took me a little while (some months) to get dialed in on the thyroid replacement meds, but things have been going fine thyroidwise since then.
One thing to consider requesting be done at the time of FNA node biopsy is a test called "FNA Washout Thyroglobulin (Tg)" which measures the amount of a thyroid-specific protein that is found in a saline wash of the biopsy needle. That test is very specific and very sensitive for thyroid cancer when done in a lymph node, but I'm not sure that it is routinely done.
All the best on next steps, and keep us posted.
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Unfortunately, I had a rare consequence of thyroid biopsy in that I developed a "lump in throat" feeling and a scratchy voice, so now I am having half my thyroid removed on January 4. The lump in throat feeling actually began after the ultrasound in August. Everyone said that "this doesn't happen" so it must be temporary. It got worse after the biopsy in October, so yes, it does happen. The surgeon said it is usually the other way around- the biopsy relieves symptoms; I just got unlucky.
I know the other half of my thyroid is supposed to make enough hormones so I won't have to supplement; hope I am luckier with that.
I feel like I am cutting off my arm to cure a hang nail.
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Hi maggiehopley, Thyroids can be really problematic (maybe if your name is Maggie?) Mine started to enlarge during my first pregnancy at 30 but instead of going back down as it does in practically all cases it continued to grow. No malignancy ever occurred, hormone levels were normal, and no doctor was ever able to explain why this was happening. Thirty seven years later the very large goiter cut off my trachea unless I was standing or sitting upright so I had to have emergency surgery. I was told it would be a total thyroidectomy but the surgeon did what was called a Dunhill procedure where he removed the right lobe and left about 1.5 cm of the left lobe. His rationale was it saved two parathyroid glands and had a 30% chance of leaving me euthyroid. I never needed levoxyl but four years later there is a still smallish goiter on the left and the growing thyroid segment (now larger than my left lobe at the time of surgery) is deviating my trachea to the right. Last time imaging showed about 60% of my trachea open so I'm hoping things are moving slowly when they check next month. My endocrinologist wants to take the remainder out but my pulmonologist wants me to avoid intubation (to prevent my rare progressive radiation induced pulmonary fibrosis from going to my good left lung) so the consensus is to keep an eye on it and only do surgery when I can no longer breathe. I am amazed at all the weird medical complications that can happen!
I left some recommendations for scar minimization and drain management after your post on the January surgery thread. I love your hang nail analogy but problems you could never imagine can develop. One benefit that I hadn't counted on was the surgery gave me a neck lift, a bonus at my age. The surgery and recovery weren't too bad. The worst is all the slasher comments you get unless you wear a scarf to hide the scar. Good luck with the surgery and let us know how things go.
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Maggie15- thanks for the tip about the scar sheets. I looked at the website and will check with my doctor. He said I won't need a drain but I have a lanyard I used for my mastectomy drains if that changes. No one has said anything about the two smaller nodules on my other lobe so I'll have to ask about that, too.
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Maggiehopley, Best wishes for an easy and successful thyroid surgery tomorrow.
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Thank you. I will let you know how it goes. I have to be there at 7 so I guess I am the first op of the day!
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It's one week post surgery and I am still a little swollen above my scar line- looks and feels like I swallowed a ping pong ball, but it seems to slowly be improving. My biggest fear going into surgery is that the "lump in throat" feeling would not go away and the surgery would be for nothing, so I am still a little concerned. The issues with the scratch feeling/sound with my voice have cleared up, however. The final pathology was benign and the nodule was actually a little smaller than what was seen on ultrasound- 3 cm vs. 3.5 cm, and I am still struggling with the feelings that this should not have happened in the first place.
Of course I know that the situation could have turned out a lot worse, so I am grateful for that.
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Maggiehopely, I'm glad to hear the pathology was benign and your throat scratchiness and voice have cleared up. Hopefully the lump in throat feeling will go away when the swelling goes down. Because the NP took my drain out too early (she hemmed and hawed but wanted to save me another four hour round trip) I ended out with a seroma which had to be needle aspirated five times. So much for saving the long drive.
At the end of the month I have an ultrasound to see how much my thyroid and nodules have grown since last year. When the surgeon did the near total thyroidectomy four years ago he told me that it might grow some "but neither you nor I will be around to worry about it." Since it's currently blocking about half my trachea I hope he's not clairvoyant.
I agree that a biopsy should not cause additional problems but it seems that "rare" side effects happen all the time. I ended out with a 3/1000 chance SE from rads (radiation induced pulmonary fibrosis.) With stage 2 bc I never imagined that the pulmonologist would be advising me to "get my affairs in order" after SOC treatment. Thankfully prednisone stopped the progression before it got to my left lung so I'm glad that I will be around a while longer but not thrilled that most of my right lung doesn't work. It's normal to be upset when the cure is worse than the disease.
I hope the rest of your recovery goes well.
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