Thyroid & Your Health: What you need to know…
by olympia on October 26, 2009
When going to the doctor’s there are a few things one does not want to hear. For instance, “we will just have to slice that off” is one of them and “Uh oh! There is a lump.” is another. For me, I heard the latter about two years ago during what I thought was just a routine check-up with my new doctor. My life, as I knew it, changed with those simple words. After the finding of the lump, I was handed the “The Thryoid Book”, arranged to meet with an endocrinologist and subjected to an ultrasound exam on my thyroid. Despite what the experts were saying, I couldn’t calm my fears that there was a foreign growth. I met with the endocrinologist who showed me the results of the ultrasound and express her concern with how big the lump was and gave me my options – either “waiting and seeing” or having surgery to remove the lump and spending the rest of my life on thyroid medication. Before I made the decision of having surgery, I wanted a second opinion and was referred to another endocrinologist who told me the same thing as the first. At least now I had to doctors who verified what I was happening. The lump was apparently growing at an alarming rate but my blood work was coming out normal (small blessing there). I was then referred to have a fine needle biopsy – which never sounds when a doctor refers that because that just screams “we think it is cancer!” despite the doctor’s cries of “well, we think it just a benign goiter, but we want to make sure EVERYTHING is okay!”
My biopsy was scheduled a month later and a very good friend went with me as they injected the biggest needle I have ever seen in my life into my lump. A few days later, I received the good news that the lump was benign and for anyone who has ever had a “cancer” scare, you understand the joy and relief this news brings. However, this relief was brief because six months later bam! there is was, the goiter had grown at a surprising rate and was getting dangerously close to my vocal chords and closing my throat and my doctors feared that there was a rare form of cancer in the goiter. I saw a surgical specialist and when I asked him how and why this was happening, I was asked where I live and apparently growing up in southeast Pennsylvania on well water and living about 60 miles between two nuclear power plants plays a role. Yikes!
After a lot of debate and consultation, I had the thyroidectomy on my right thyroid. It was an extremely tough decision to make because each time you have surgery and lose a bit of you; you have to deal with the consequences. For me, it is dealing with the occasional hormonal change and increase or decrease in energy and the dependency on the thyroid hormone medicine. I have to constantly monitor and have blood tests done every six months to check my thyroid hormone levels.
The take away message from this incident is pay attention to our bodies, get regular check-ups, get a second opinion if the first one does not agree with you or if you need clarification, and most importantly, take care of ourselves. We only have one body and it’s our responsibility to take care of it.
Hi, Robin Here:
When going to the doctor’s there are a few things one does not want to hear. For instance, “we will just have to slice that off” is one of them and “Uh oh! There is a lump,” is another. For me, I heard the latter about two years ago during what I thought was just a routine check-up with my new doctor. My life, as I knew it, changed with those simple words. After the finding of the lump, I was handed the “The Thryoid Book”, arranged to meet with an endocrinologist and subjected to an ultrasound exam on my thyroid. Despite what the experts were saying, I couldn’t calm my fears that there was a foreign growth. I met with the endocrinologist who showed me the results of the ultrasound and express her concern with how big the lump was and gave me my options – either “waiting and seeing” or having surgery to remove the lump and spending the rest of my life on thyroid medication. Before I made the decision of having surgery, I wanted a second opinion and was referred to another endocrinologist who told me the same thing as the first. At least now I had to doctors who verified what I was happening. The lump was apparently growing at an alarming rate but my blood work was coming out normal (small blessing there). I was then referred to have a fine needle biopsy – which never sounds when a doctor refers that because that just screams “we think it is cancer!” despite the doctor’s cries of “well, we think it just a benign goiter, but we want to make sure EVERYTHING is okay!”
My biopsy was scheduled a month later and a very good friend went with me as they injected the biggest needle I have ever seen in my life into my lump. A few days later, I received the good news that the lump was benign and for anyone who has ever had a “cancer” scare, you understand the joy and relief this news brings. However, this relief was brief because six months later bam! there is was, the goiter had grown at a surprising rate and was getting dangerously close to my vocal chords and closing my throat and my doctors feared that there was a rare form of cancer in the goiter. I saw a surgical specialist and when I asked him how and why this was happening, I was asked where I live and apparently growing up in southeast Pennsylvania on well water and living about 60 miles between two nuclear power plants plays a role. Yikes! 
After a lot of debate and consultation, I had the thyroidectomy on my right thyroid. It was an extremely tough decision to make because each time you have surgery and lose a bit of you; you have to deal with the consequences. For me, it is dealing with the occasional hormonal change and increase or decrease in energy and the dependency on the thyroid hormone medicine. I have to constantly monitor and have blood tests done every six months to check my thyroid hormone levels.
The take away message from this incident is pay attention to our bodies, get regular check-ups, get a second opinion if the first one does not agree with you or if you need clarification, and most importantly, take care of ourselves. We only have one body and it’s our responsibility to take care of it.
Tagged as:
cancer,
goiter,
health,
thyroid,
thyroid ultrasound
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
i am 27 years old had my second child 7 months ago and thought i was in perfect health. i went for a regular check up and my doctor found a lump in my neck hesaid he thought it was a goiter. he sent me to the hospital for an ultrasound and it came back ok that i know of. my tsh level was low normal and my t4 level was like 0.3 something he said real low.. i’m on 50mcg levothyroxine a day and they will recheck everything in 2 months what i wan to know is am i doing the right thing by being on meds and can this turn into cancer…? thyroid cancer runs in two of my aunts and my cousin what do i do? i’m young have two young kids and i’m scared.
thanks,
samantha
Samantha, I advise you to be proactive. Since you already know that thyroid cancer runs in the family, follow up with your doctor, talk to an endocrinologist and never fear to get a second, third or fourth opinion. Do not pysche yourself out and fear the worse. Take action now so you can figure out if this goiter is something more then “just a goiter”. Follow up with your doctor and ask to have a fine needle biopsy done to make sure there isn’t precancerous cells in there. I’m sure they are working on monitoring it but communicate to your doctors about your family history and be proactive. You are the best advocate for your body and only you really know your body so monitor any changes (low or high energy, weight gain or lost). However, I caution to not let fear rule your decision making, it’s tough but you’ll fine the right balance. The thryoid moves slowly so even your goiter could have been growing for the last ten years. Your low tsh levels indicate that you have hypothryoid (slow thryoid which leads to slow metabolism, weakness and low energy) and the medication helps boost the TSH levels. Please let me know if you have any other questions.