- nodules - RELAX

[Guest guest]

snip>I'm hoping since I've had this particular nodule for about a year

(maybe less... or possibly longer) that if it is cancer, it hasn't spread

outside my thyroid gland.

, I've been reading some of the posts about this topic - relax baby -

you're going to think yourself into cancer. Remember that cancer in the

thyroid is *generally* slow growing. 10% of the population have nodules in

their thyroids, but only 1% of them are cancerous - most of these are

discovered during autopsy when the patient has died of something completely

unrelated. IF it is cancer, it's taken a long time to get to a palpable

size, and as it doesn't appear to have gotten noticeably bigger in the last

year, then chances are, it's either NOT cancer or it's growing very slowly.

If it IS cancer and you're hypothyroid, you would need to get yourself out

of that state as thyroid cancers are stimulated to grow by high TSH.

So bottom line is that you DO need to find out what's going on in there.

I've had thyroid cancer and a hemithyroidectomy. I return 6 monthly for

ultrasounds to monitor spots on my remaining half gland. These spots have

not changed, grown or spread since surgery 5 years ago, nor for the two

years (aprox.) prior to that that the suspicious lump (which turned out to

be cancer) was monitored by ultrasound. I've just had a whole series of

lymph glands u/s'd as well as they were enlarged - turns out in response to

bronchitis I had. Nothing to worry about and as the sonographer on the

follow-up visit said - the radiologist who wrote my initial report (about

enlarged lymph nodes) is the MOST conservative doctor in the place, who was

erring on the side of caution because of my previous history.

So you need to think whether or not you've had a cold, flu, bronchitis,

sinusitis or anything else which may have caused your lymph system to react

in your neck/throat region?

snip>I'm not really nervous if I need thyroid surgery itself but if I do

I'll have them remove everything... both lobes and the paras to. Taking

calcium supplements & staying on armour is something I'm willing to do.

There is a major message on this list which you are NOT getting yet - many

of us are STRUGGLING, really struggling, trying to get our medications

right, following surgery or RAI of the thyroid gland, even years later. IF

it is cancer and IF it is clearly defined and only in one lobe, then you are

FAR better off retaining your remaining gland AND your parathyroids. The

body is not like a car, you cannot just take faulty or old stuff out and put

spares in by way of supplements. The body doesn't like it and we're not yet

smart enough to get the medication 100% correct for every body all the time.

Please think very carefully before you undergo unnecessary surgery. Unles

the parathyroids are invaded, I seriously doubt a surgeon would take them

out anyhow, considering how small they are and the delicacy required in

removing them without damaging your voice. In my case, I was willing to

have the hemithyroidectomy, see what the frozen section said and then have

the other half out IF it was necessary, turns out it was not necessary.

Donna in Oz.