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Thyroid Cancer Group: Introduce yourself and connect with others
Thyroid Cancer | Last Active: Nov 18 5:21pm | Replies (174)Comment receiving replies
It’s hard not to be worried about having surgery! If you are concerned and having doubts, have you consider a second opinion? My nodule was over 5 cm so I don’t know what size and growth is significant to predict cancer… mine was big but they didn’t think it was cancerous… and then it was!
Are you being seen by a cancer specialist? I had Affirma testing with the FNA which appears to have a high rate of accuracy for predicting cancer.
I did not find the surgery overly painful… I ended up with back/ shoulder pain from the positioning that caused me more pain than the neck…, and Advil and heating pad helped it. From a pain perspective. The healing process is ongoing however it was never excruciating pain. The change to the hormones is a bit tricky. I ended up having to take Synthroid and it is hard to decipher what is related to thyroid and what is related to side effects of medicine…. However this seems like an expected process…. It is tricky!
Good luck!
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Hi @koh14 Thanks for sharing your experience! Yes, I did get a second opinion -- one opted for lobectomy right from the get go and the other suggested watching waiting or lobectomy if it grows, which it did. Both doctors are otolaryngologists who focus on cancers of the head and neck and the surgeon who is performing the lobectomy is the director of the cancer center I'm going to, so I feel like I'm in good hands. The results of my FNA came back highly suspicious for papillary carcinoma (plus irregular margins and microcalcifications), so it needs to go.
Will just need to take it one step at a time -- it seems there are a lot of little moving parts to all this! Best of luck to you too with your process and healing.