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Meet others living with Head & Neck Cancer: Introduce yourself
Head & Neck Cancer | Last Active: 5 days ago | Replies (627)Comment receiving replies
@hrhwilliam thank you for teaching out to me. I have such sad and mad feelings. I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of papillary thyroid cancer, i think stage 2. I need to get clarity on that
I had complained to my pcp for a year that i was having difficulty breathing and swallowing. He kept prescribing inhalers that didn’t work. He finally sent me for an ultrasound that showed cancer. He then sent me to a pulmonologist who looked at the scan and told me a tumor was pushing Against my esophagus and windpipe. HE sent me to a ENT who said it was not bad and sent me to another ENT who could do surgery sooner. He also doubted that it was cancer, saying that a biopsy i had done after diagnosis “suspicious with 25% odds of malignancy “. The 2nd ENT looked at the PET scan i had done and immediately sent me to the ED at Yale.
The drs up until this point were not from Yale.
The wonderful surgeon st Yale spent 8 hours working on me. The tumor had grown beneath my breast bone and had to be scooped out. The cancer had metastasized into lymph nodes that had to be removed. The tumor was .9
I am exhausted just writing this and crying. I am so afraid of what will happen to me and EXTREMELY angry at my pcp
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@kathleenmkastrup It is surprising how often doctors overlook cancer while looking elsewhere to cure you with medicines. The fact is most doctors rarely see cancers in patients. I am glad you got this sorted out after being passed around hither and fro, doctor to doctor.
Yale has a good reputation and tries to put the patient first. They might send you somewhere else for follow up treatments, I don’t really know how they handle things in the land of tweed.
Less than 1cm and some lymph involved so I would guess that is a stage two. Don’t quote me as I don’t practice medicine.
You are afraid of what might happen to you. Likely you will be fine after some rather annoying radiation and perhaps Chemo. For me, I came to grips that this might be the end. Of course it wasn’t but that peace has been with me ever since. I have said for years that if I die I will have no regrets. I have lived a good life (actually an amazing life never imagined).
As for you, you are not stage four plus. You don’t have an expiration date stamped “soon”. You just have a battle to face, a battle you didn’t choose but one you must fight nevertheless. You are going to put the brakes on your everyday life until you get this sorted out. You don’t have an option here. You must do this. And hopefully/likely this time next year this will all be pretty much in your past. Courage.