Hi, I was diagnosed with papillary thyroid cancer last week, my doctor is hopeful that I'll only need a partial thyroidectomy, but there aren't any guarantees. I'm in my late 30s and I'm guessing that I've had this for awhile (the cancerous nodule is about 1.5 x 1 x 1.5 cm; I additionally have a benign nodule that's about three times the size of the cancerous one).

So far my doctor has been pretty up front about what surgery and treatment path I'm probably looking at, but no information on what my quality of life will be after treatment, or if there are any cancer support services available in my area.

I'm quite nervous and I feel like I'm having to take most of this journey alone. Should I get a second opinion before my surgery? How do I find support groups or patient advocates in my area? The brain fog is absolutely terrible, and being suddenly thrown into the cancer care system has been overwhelming.

While my doctors are sympathetic, I've also faced a lot of judgement from medical staff that don't know my diagnosis, I think because they don't believe that a middle aged professional woman could be sick with something like this, which has made it much harder.